Introduction
David V. Bush wrote for the moment when confidence begins to weaken. His speakers meet failed plans, criticism, financial difficulty and slow progress with a repeated practical answer: keep working, control the response and remain ready for the next opportunity.
This selection includes popular David V. Bush poems about persistence, failure, opportunity, attitude and success. Bush was also published as David Van Bush, so both versions of his name may appear in historical records. Complete texts are included where an early public-domain edition has been verified; other poems are presented through original summaries and analysis. More writers can be found in our Famous Poets directory, while additional handpicked verse appears in the Featured Poems collection.
Meaning, Themes & Analysis
Popular David V. Bush Poems
Featured PoemsKeep Plodding
Overview Keep Plodding Poem Meaning
“Keep Plodding” addresses a person who feels discouraged because repeated effort has not yet produced success. Its advice is deliberately simple: continue moving even when progress feels slow, tiring or unimpressive.
The word “plodding” usually suggests heavy or unexciting movement, but Bush treats it as a strength. The poem’s message is that steady work can carry a person farther than a short burst of enthusiasm followed by surrender.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Persistence: Continued effort remains important when quick success does not arrive.
- Patience: Useful results may take longer than originally expected.
- Resilience: A failed attempt does not have to become a permanent defeat.
- Steady work: The poem values consistent action over dramatic promises.
Poetic Approach Refrain, Journey Imagery and Tone
The repeated instruction to keep plodding acts like a refrain and gives the poem a firm, forward-moving rhythm. Journey and rough-weather imagery represent the difficulty of continuing when the destination cannot yet be seen. The tone is direct, practical and encouraging.
Try Again
Overview Try Again by David V. Bush: Summary and Meaning
“Try Again” moves through several forms of discouragement, including failed plans, lost confidence and the feeling that circumstances have turned against the individual. Each setback receives the same response: another attempt remains possible.
The poem does not necessarily recommend repeating an unsuccessful method without thought. Its broader message is that experience, changed conditions or a revised approach may produce a different result. One failure should not be allowed to decide every future possibility.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Second chances: An unsuccessful effort does not close every available path.
- Determination: Renewed action is presented as an alternative to helplessness.
- Shared struggle: Failure is treated as a common human experience rather than a private disgrace.
- Hope: New knowledge or changing circumstances may create a better result.
Poetic Form Repetition and Structure
The poem presents different situations of disappointment before returning to its central instruction. This repeated structure makes “try again” feel applicable to work, personal ambition and other forms of difficulty rather than to one specific event.
There's No Such Thing as Failure
Overview There's No Such Thing as Failure: Meaning
“There’s No Such Thing as Failure” argues that an unsuccessful result becomes final only when a person completely stops responding to it. Bush presents defeat as an event that can still lead towards experience, stronger determination or a revised plan.
The title is intentionally absolute, but the practical lesson is more measured. Failure is real as an outcome, yet it does not have to become a permanent identity. The next response determines whether the setback becomes an ending or part of a longer process.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Mindset: The meaning assigned to failure affects what a person does next.
- Persistence: Continued effort prevents a temporary defeat from becoming final.
- Self-confidence: Belief in improvement supports another attempt.
- Faith and resolve: Spiritual trust is connected with personal action and discipline.
Literary Devices Contrast, Affirmation and Light Imagery
The poem contrasts failure with success, darkness with returning light, and surrender with continued action. Repeated positive statements function as affirmations, reflecting Bush’s wider interest in willpower and constructive mental habits.
Opportunity
Opportunity knocks many times every day,
And if carelessly slighted departs on its way;
But it never evades you, for some time again
It is sure to return—and if seized, will remain!
You must study its aspect and know how to take
Every chance that is offered, its friendship to make;
You must cherish a faith that it some day will bless
The dull course of your life, and turn ills to success.
Believe in its coming with mind strong and keen,
And be sure that you know it, when once it is seen;
It may come in the sun, yet look still in the storm,
For misfortunes may show you its bright beaming form.
Each night the great sun nestles down in the west,
But next morning returns with the same ardent zest;
So remember whenever you fall by the way,
That a new opportunity waits you next day!
No care is so trying, no failure so great,
That you can’t find a new chance to battle with fate.
Watch close for your boon, for it’s e’er on the wing
And the end of your trials at last it will bring.
Gain knowledge and courage, seek wisdom and light,
Lest you miss the fleet chance when it looms into sight;
Every minute improve, and dismiss the dull past,
Nor believe that old woes till the morrow will last.
Through the star-studded night and the noonday’s blue vault,
Floats benign Opportunity, never to halt;
It is knocking each hour, and it calls loud and clear,
So be watchful and ready to answer, “I’m here!”
Overview Opportunity Poem Summary and Meaning
“Opportunity” challenges the familiar belief that an important chance arrives only once. Bush presents opportunity as something that may return, appear in a different form or become visible during circumstances that initially look like misfortune.
The poem’s central meaning is that opportunity requires both awareness and preparation. A chance may be present without being recognised, while a person who has developed knowledge, courage and attention is better prepared to act when it appears.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Recurring opportunity: A missed chance does not mean that no further opening will appear.
- Preparation: Knowledge and courage help a person make use of an opportunity.
- Awareness: A useful chance must be noticed before it can be accepted.
- Renewal: The arrival of another day represents the return of possibility.
- Hope during difficulty: Misfortune may contain an unexpected route towards improvement.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The opening rejects the idea that opportunity knocks only once. It may leave when ignored, but the speaker believes it can return. The reader must therefore avoid treating one missed chance as the end of all possibility.
Stanza 2
The speaker advises readers to study opportunity and learn how to recognise it. Faith alone is not enough; a person must understand how to respond when a useful chance appears.
Stanza 3
Opportunity may appear during favourable circumstances, represented by sunshine, but it may also be hidden within a storm. A setback can reveal a new direction that comfort might never have made visible.
Stanza 4
The setting and rising sun become examples of recurring possibility. Just as morning follows night, a new chance may follow a fall or disappointment.
Stanza 5
No failure is presented as so large that another struggle becomes impossible. Opportunity remains active and mobile, so the reader must continue watching for it.
Stanza 6
Preparation becomes the main focus. Knowledge, courage and wisdom make it less likely that a brief opportunity will pass unnoticed.
Stanza 7
The final stanza personifies Opportunity as a presence moving through day and night. Its repeated knocking requires a clear and ready response from the individual.
Craft Symbols and Literary Devices
- Personification: Opportunity knocks, travels, returns, calls and waits like a visitor.
- Sunrise symbolism: The returning sun represents renewed possibility after failure.
- Storm imagery: Difficult circumstances may conceal an unexpected opportunity.
- Light imagery: Wisdom and awareness are associated with light and clear vision.
- Repetition: Frequent references to opportunity reinforce its recurring nature.
- Direct address: Repeated use of “you” makes the poem’s advice immediate and personal.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem contains seven quatrains formed mainly from rhyming couplets, producing the pattern AABB in each stanza. The regular rhymes give the poem the sound of direct motivational instruction.
Its argument develops from the return of opportunity to the preparation needed to recognise it. The closing answer, “I’m here,” changes the reader from a passive observer into someone prepared to respond.
Do Not Lose Your Pep
Overview Do Not Lose Your Pep Summary
“Do Not Lose Your Pep” considers setbacks such as financial loss, failed plans, fear and disappearing support. After each problem, the speaker returns to the advice that the reader must protect the energy needed for another effort.
The poem does not suggest that losses are unimportant. Its argument is that an external difficulty becomes more damaging when it also destroys morale and the willingness to respond.
Interpretation What Does Pep Mean in the Poem?
“Pep” means more than temporary excitement. In the poem it represents morale, alertness, courage and the willingness to take constructive action. Keeping one’s pep means preserving enough inner energy to reconsider a plan and begin again.
Craft Main Themes and Literary Approach
- Morale: Emotional energy supports practical recovery.
- Resilience: Loss is not treated as the end of future action.
- Refrain: The title phrase repeatedly answers new forms of difficulty.
- Storm imagery: Severe weather represents fear, pressure and misfortune.
- Energetic rhythm: The poem’s pace reinforces its message about maintaining courage.
Continue Reading
Related Poems & Articles
More selected reading from Featured Poems.
