Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 8/21/2009

Question
Please can you tell me the author and full text, if any more, of a poem my mother used to tell me:
It's easy to sit in the sunshine and talk to the man in the shade
It's easy to sit in a well trimmed boat and tell others where to wade
It's easy to tell the pedlar how best to carry his pack
But none can rate a burdens weight 'til he's had it on his back.

By the way when I was a child she also used to tell me the poem "Keeping his word" and even now at bedtimes for my grandchildren I exhort them to "remember the poor". It was lovely to see the full text of both versions. Thank you.


Answer
Dear Lesley:

The author is the poetess, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, renown for her short poems of "morality."  This poem's title is "Preaching Vs Practice."

I am typing the complete text below.  It is one of the "best loved poems," which your mother has proven by telling it to you.

Ted Nesbitt

*****

Preaching Vs Practice

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is easy to sit in the sunshine
And talk to the man in the shade;
It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat,
And point out the places to wade.

But once we pass into the shadows,
We murmur and fret and frown,
And, our length from the bank, we shout for a plank,
Or throw up our hands and go down.

It is easy to sit in your carriage,
And counsel the man on foot,
But get down and walk, and you'll change your talk,
As you feel the peg in your boot.

It is easy to tell the toiler
How best he can carry his pack,
But no one can rate a burden's weight
Until it has been on his back.

The up-curled mouth of pleasure,
Can prate of sorrow's worth,
But give it a sip, and a wryer lip
Was never made on earth.