---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Selected
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 5
number: 6
published: 1902-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Selected, "To the Loser. A Poem," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 6 (April 1902): 455.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0506unse
  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: improvementera0506unse
start_page: 455
end_page: 455
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0506unse
  publication_year: 1902
  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 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# To the Loser. A Poem

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TO THE LOSER.
So you've lost your race, lad? Ran it clean and fast?
Beaten at the tape, lad? Rough? Yes, but 'tis past.
Never mind the losing, — think of how you ran;
Smile, and shut your teeth, lad, — take it like a man!
Not the winning counts, lad, but the winning fair;
Not the losing shames, lad, but the weak despair;
So when failure stuns you, don't forget your plan, —
Smile, and shut your teeth, lad, — take it like a man!
Diamonds turned to paste, lad? Night instead of morn?
Where you'd pluck a rose, lad, oft you grasp a thorn?
Time will heal the bleeding, — life is but a span;
Smile, and shut your teeth, lad, — take it like a man!
Then, when sunset comes, lad, when your fighting's through,
And the Silent Guest, lad, fills his cup for you,
Shrink not, — clasp it coolly, — end as you began;
Smile, and close your eyes, lad, — and take it like a man!
— Selected