Iris of Life
Like tiny drops of crystal rain,
In every life the moments fall,
To wear away with silent beat,
The shell of selfishness o’er all.
And every act, not one too small,
That leaps from out the heart’s pure glow,
Like ray of gold sends forth a light,
While moments into seasons flow.
Athwart the dome, Eternity,
To Iris grown resplendent, fly
Bright gleams from every noble deed,
Till colors with each other vie.
’Tis glimpses of this grand rainbow,
Where moments with good deeds unite,
That gladden many weary hearts,
Inspiring them to seek more Light.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 5, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Iris of Life” was published in The Earlhamite vol. 5, no. 31 (November 1, 1898), a magazine published by Earlham College, to which Zitkála-Šá was a frequent student contributor. The poem is composed of ballad stanzas, which consist of lines of iambic tetrameter set into rhyming quatrains. In Dreams and Thunder: Stories, Poems and The Sun Dance Opera (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), where Zitkála-Šá’s extant poetry is collected, editor P. Jane Hafen writes, “Another student poem by [Zitkála-Šá], ‘Iris of Life’ has a lyricism that is subtly underscored by the burden of life’s experiences.”
Zitkála-Šá
Zitkála-Šá, also known by her missionary name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was born on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota, then the Dakota Territory. A member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux, she was a poet, musician, librettist, short-story writer, essayist, activist, and the co-creator, with William F. Hanson, of The Sun Dance Opera, an opera based on the Lakota Sun Dance ceremony.