I have lain in the sun I have toil'd as I might I have thought as I would And now it is night. My bed full of sleep My heart of content For friends that I met The way that I went. I welcome fatigue While frenzy and care Like thin summer clouds Go melting in air. To dream as I may And awake when I will With the song of the birds And the sun on the hill. Or death -- were it death --. To what should I wake Who loved in my home All life for its sake? What good have I wrought? I laugh to have learned That joy cannot come Unless it be earned; For a happier lot Than God giveth me It never hath been Nor ever shall be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO HIS MISTRESS by ABRAHAM COWLEY SACRIFICE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON AUBADE [OR, A MORNING SONG FOR IMOGEN], FR. CYMBELINE by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SINCERE FLATTERY OF R.B. by JAMES KENNETH STEPHEN NOW PRECEDENT SONGS, FAREWELL by WALT WHITMAN |