---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Anderson, Bertha E.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 4
number: 10
published: 1901-08
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Bertha E. Anderson, "The Two Awakenings: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 10 (August 1901): 764.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0410unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0410unse
start_page: 764
end_page: 764
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-08)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0410unse
  publication_year: 1901
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Two Awakenings: A Poem

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THE TWO AWAKENINGS.
                  From "Klethla, and Other Poems."
         When on our path the summer roses end,
         We sigh, and wish their bloom might always stay;
         Yet, as we sigh, we smile and turn away,
         For June will come, and roses bloom again.

         But, when a soul sinks down in error stern,
         We name the sin, and calmly count its cost,
         Then of the end, we say that he is lost,
         And boast of strength that holds our own feet firm.

        Yet, shall the flowers waken in the Spring,
        From shriveled blades and stalks all brown with rust;
        And erring souls, bowed with them in the dust,
        Be counted less than each unfolded thing?

        Shall ice-bound streams burst out into the sun
        To thrill with life the waiting fields again,
        And, as they hasten past the homes of men,
        Sigh only these stern words, "Thy course is run"?

        Shall only buds and trees brave o'er the frost,
        And every year in fuller life begin;
         Or, are they symbols of the souls of sin,
        That, too, shall rise, nor in life's storms be lost?
                                        —Bertha E. Anderson.