Submitted by Ryan Flahive

The following poem was written by Sharlot M. Hall for Arthur Weslock Upson. The original is located in the Sharlot M. Hall Papers & Photographs Collection, MS-12 at the Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives.

"A Christmas Wish" by Sharlot Hall, December 23, 1899 

"The only gift is a portion of thyself...therefore the poet brings his poem." Ralph Waldo Emerson

What shall I wish you? wealth? Yes, wealth is leisure 
And place and power and of fortuity. 
But something too I'd give you of the pleasure 
Of being poor but free. 

What shall I wish you? health? Cool pulses yearning 
Are worth a miser's hoard of gems and gold. 
Yet pain is still the measure of our growing up to the heights untold. 

Some little weed of greatness would I choose you, 
Some smooth set path to eminence and fame, 
And yet - the small, sweet joys of life they lose you 
Are worth a far blown name. 

Friendship? Also yes, life holds no gift that's dearer, 
No prince of gifts to match a faithful friend; 
Be yours the comrade - sons drawn near and nearer 
By sympathies that blend. 

And love? Yes, in its gentlest, sweetest fashion, 
Love that is life, is truth, but sanctified 
Beyond the burning passion 
That sears the heart of youth. 

Health, wealth and friends, nobility and love, 
These be your yoke-mates as the years increase. 

And over all, soft as a brooding dove 
The calm, deep wings pf peace. 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb003i77-194p66)
Reuse only by permission.
Interior of the Eckert residence in Groom Creek, Prescott, in 1900.