COUNT THAT DAY LOST/ BY GEORGE ELIOT

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went —
Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,
You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay —
If, through it all
You’ve nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face–
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost —
Then count that day as worse than lost.

The poem “Count That Day Lost” describes two possible outcomes of a day:

The first stanza describes a day “well spent” – a day when you did something good for someone else, when you helped others or showed kindness to others. If you reflect on your actions at the end of such a day, your day has not been lost because of the joy it brought to another person.

On the other hand, the second stanza describes a day “worse than lost” – a day when you did nothing to help or comfort anyone.

The message of the poem:

Everyone should do an act of kindness every day. It makes our lives more meaningful. It expresses an important basic principle underlying civilized society. The poem implies that society as a whole can be improved if each of us does his or her part – and that it is every person‟s responsibility to do so.

In other words, the poem describes two possible outcomes of a day. In this, Eliot reflects her biblical upbringing. A self-denying deed is quite open, but her other suggestions are simple to accomplish and fall under the category of ‘do as you would be done by” – כמוך לרעך ואהבת .

If, on the other hand, you had the opportunity to be a better person, but you missed it – and you can never go back and have it again, that’s why this is a day “worse than lost”. The poem implies that society as a whole can be improved if each of us does his or her part – and that it is every person‟s responsibility to do so. The poem is about going beyond the care and concern for oneself to make someone else happy in order to make a day worthwhile.

The title immediately creates suspense. What day (we wonder) does the title imply? In what ways will that day be “lost”? Answers to these questions are postponed until the very end of the poem, where the text achieves a final ironic symmetry. The poem‟s last line (in other words) clearly echoes its title, but in a memorably different way than we may have expected.

Form and Structure: The poem consists of two stanzas, 8 lines each. Each stanza has 8 verses (lines).The length of the lines are the same in both stanzas (line 3 and line 11 are both short), which means that there is regular rhythm. In both stanzas, the rhymes are different but their pattern is similar. The rhyming scheme is: Stanza 1: a, a, b, c, c, b, d, d. Stanza 2: e, e, f, g, g, f, h, h. The form supports the idea of the poem. In this poem, the speaker states that we need to be kind and helpful to other people. We do this by measuring every day what we have done, weigh or count our deeds. When people do “soul searching” נפש חשבון and think about what they did wrong or right, they often find the balance.

LITERARY TERMS:

Image – A mental picture or feeling created the writer through words. The reader imagines something he might see, hear, smell, taste, touch or feel.

Metaphor – describes one thing in terms of something else, as if the two are equal.

Simile – An expression that compares two things, showing how they are similar by using: „like‟ or „as‟.

Rhyme – a word or part of a word that shares the same sound.

Rhyme scheme – The pattern of rhyming words that repeats itself.

Verse – a single line in a poem.

Stanza – A group of verses, which form a unit in a poem. This unit may repeats itself in the poem.