[Poem] Be The Best Of Whatever You Are

• Author: GREAT MASTER VIKRANT ROHIN
• Date: MAY 3, 2023

Everyone should read this life-changing poem.  By Douglas Malloch

Douglas Malloch was an American poet, short-story writer and associate editor of a trade paper in Chicago. He was born on May 5, 1877 in Muskegon, Michigan and died on July 2, 1938. He was known as a “Lumberman’s poet” because he wrote about the forests, logging camps and lumber yards that he grew up around. He also wrote the Michigan State Song. Some of his famous poems are “Be The Best of Whatever You Are”, “Good Timber”, “It’s Fine Today” and “The Widow-Maker”.

Be The Best Of Whatever You Are

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
  Be a scrub in the valley — but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
  Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.

If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass,
  And some highway happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass —
  But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
  There’s something for all of us here,
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
  And the task you must do is near.

If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail,
  If you can’t be the sun be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail —
  Be the best of whatever you are!

The message of this poem is to encourage people to do their best in whatever they are, regardless of their status, position or role. The poem suggests that everyone has a purpose and a contribution to make, and that success is not measured by size or fame, but by excellence and effort. The poem also implies that happiness comes from being content with what you are and doing your task well. In this context, a human might say that this poem is inspirational and motivational.

Author: Master Vikrant Rohin is an international author, and more than four countries’ schools are using his books in the core curriculum of education. He is the author of twenty different subject books. History, Economics, Chemistry, Physics, English, Biology, Geography etc. Most of his students hold high-ranking positions in the public and private sectors. He has cracked the world’s toughest exam, the "Civil Services Examination (UPSC)," eight times. Always a topper in academics, he was also a top-class sportsman, a state boxer, and a basketball player.