Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IF WE HAD BUT A DAY, by MARY LOWE DICKINSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF WE HAD BUT A DAY, by                    
First Line: We should fill the hours with the sweetest things
Last Line: If we had but a day.
Subject(s): Human Behavior; Service; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


We should fill the hours with the sweetest things,
If we had but a day;
We should drink alone at the purest springs
In our upward way;
We should love with a lifetime's love in an hour,
If the hours were few;
We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresher power
To be and to do.
We should guide our wayward or wearied wills
By the clearest light;
We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills,
If they lay in sight;
We should trample the pride and the discontent
Beneath our feet;
We should take whatever a good God sent,
With a trust complete.
We should waste no moments in weak regret,
If the day were but one;
If what we remember and what we forget
Went out with the sun;
We should be from our clamorous selves set free,
To work or to pray,
And to be what the Father would have us be,
If we had but a day.




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