This was a poem I first read sometime during middle school. I clearly remember it stuck there on the notice board outside our vice-principal’s office. One of the very few poems I actively remember about. I seem to have lost the original version somewhere, so I googled a bit for it. There seem to be two predominant versions floating around, so I’ll put an amalgamation of the two (or the version that I clearly remember). Sources are mentioned at the end of the post:

== Don’t Quit (Author Unknown) ==

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will\\
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill\\
When the funds are low and the debts are high\\
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh

When care is pressing you down a bit\\
Rest, you must – but don’t you quit\\
Life is queer with its twists and turns\\
As everyone of us sometimes learns

And many a failure turns about\\
When he might have won had he stuck it out\\
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow\\
You might succeed with another blow

Often the struggler has given up\\
When he might have captured the victors cup;\\
And he learned too late when the night came down,\\
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out, \\
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt\\
And you never can tell how close you are, \\
It may be near when it seems so far\\
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit\\
It’s when things seem worst, That you mustn’t quit!

**Sources**

* http://www.poems.fsnet.co.uk/21_Quit.htm
* http://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_099.htm