Life Grows Fairer by Ruth Collie
"Life Grows Fairer" is a short reflective poem by Ruth Collie that opens Ruth Collie's collection of the same name, built around the declaration that life becomes more beautiful with age rather than more burdensome. The speaker asserts that this deepening beauty should persist even as death approaches, framing mortality not as something to be feared but as a lover advancing toward the end of life. The poem explicitly rejects worldly markers of success as the source of this growing fairness: pomp, social status, ambition fulfilled, lucky fortune, and material wealth (the Midas image underscores how gold specifically is dismissed as meaningless). The speaker notes with wry self-awareness that her own bank account has not changed, making clear that the poem's claim about life's increasing beauty is not tied to any improvement in circumstance or possession. Instead, the poem locates the source of this fairness in love, tenderness, and grace, which the speaker says make the world lovelier "day by day." A simple joy—seeing a friendly face while going bravely through life—is offered as more valuable than any accumulation of status or wealth. The poem also downplays intellect, knowledge, and wit as forces that shape a good life, conceding only that they help "a bit" before pivoting to gratitude for simpler, God-given gifts: sunlight and flowers, peace under starlit skies, friends gathered around a fire, books that amuse, help, and instruct, and love that fulfills the heart's deepest desire. Structurally and tonally, the piece functions as a devotional or inspirational lyric, using plain, conversational language and a gently persuasive first-person voice to argue that aging, rightly understood, is not decline but enrichment. The poem's rhetorical strategy is contrastive throughout: it repeatedly names what does *not* make life fairer (ambition, luck, wealth, cleverness) before affirming what does (love, friendship, nature, faith, books), building its case through accumulation of small, accessible pleasures rather than grand philosophical argument. The closing image—love crowning the heart's desire—serves as the emotional and thematic culmination of the piece, tying the poem's meditation on aging back to its central claim that human connection and gratitude, not achievement or acquisition, are what render a life increasingly beautiful as it nears its close.
By Ruth Collie · First published 1927 · Genre: Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Inspirational/Motivational Literature · 226 words
First lines
As life goes by it fairer grows. Oh, yes, it fairer grows to me. / And may it be so at the close when Death advances lovingly. It is / not greater pomp nor state, nor high ambitions well attained, nor any / stroke of lucky fate, nor wealth that Midas-like I've gained. / Material gains I have not known (my bank account's about the same! ) / and yet the world has fairer grown; with certainty I make this claim. / In love and tenderness and grace, the world grows fairer day by day. / What joy to see a friendly face as we go bravely on our way. Not / cleverness, nor knowledge, wit, do much enhance this life of ours (of / course I know they help a bit), but God be thanked for sun and / flow'rs; for peace beneath the star-strewn skies; for friends who sit / around one's fire; for books, amusing, helpful, wise; for Love that / crowns the heart's desire.
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is composed in rhyming verse with structured stanzas, employing traditional poetic form and lyrical language.
- Philosophical Poetry — Explores fundamental questions about life's meaning, what constitutes true value, and the nature of human fulfillment beyond material wealth.
- Inspirational/Motivational Literature — Presents an affirming meditation on life's inherent fairness and beauty, encouraging readers to find joy in simple, spiritual, and relational aspects of existence.
- Romantic Poetry — Celebrates love as 'the heart's desire,' emphasizes tenderness, grace, and joy in human connection alongside natural beauty.
Tags
inspirational · poetry · growth · hope · optimism · spirituality · self-improvement · nature · beauty · virtue · philosophical · reflection
What this Textopian page supports
Life Grows Fairer is listed on Textopian as a poem by Ruth Collie, dated 1927 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Ruth Collie
- Date: 1927 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Inspirational/Motivational Literature, Romantic Poetry, Spiritual/Religious Poetry
- Length: 226 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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