These I Can Promise
These I Can Promise - meaning Summary
Promises of Steady Devotion
Mark Twain's short lyric rejects grand material promises and instead offers steady emotional commitments. Addressing a beloved, the speaker refuses to guarantee wealth, ease, or escape from aging, but pledges wholehearted devotion, comfort in sorrow, enduring love, and physical companionship. The poem frames love as a practical, sustaining choice that endures change and the passage of time rather than a source of impossible security.
Read Complete AnalysesI cannot promise you a life of sunshine; I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold; I cannot promise you an easy pathway That leads away from change or growing old. But I can promise all my heart's devotion; A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow; A love that's ever true and ever growing; A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
Although widely attributed to Mark Twain, this was not written by Mark Twain. See the New York Times article Sunday, August 31, 2025 that quotes Steve Courtney, a Mark Twain researcher who confirmed that this poem debuted in a New Jersey newspaper in 1971.