| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | A Day of Joy | | By Julie (Wetherill) Baker (1858– ) |
| | | THOU canst not rob me of that happy day, | |
| Though joy from out earth’s choral song has ceased, | |
| And all things pass, the greatest as the least. | |
| So may the red rose weep its leaves away, | |
| And summer from her sumptuous prime decay, | 5 |
| And silence fall upon the season’s feast, | |
| And darkness on the dawn-enkindled east, | |
| Whence the sun leaps with bright and beckoning ray: | |
| |
| That day was mine. And as the lonely years | |
| Wind downward toward death’s door that glooms afar, | 10 |
| One memory shall banish all my fears,— | |
| A talisman that naught can dull or mar,— | |
| And I shall see it, from the way of tears, | |
| Shine ’mid the grave-dust like a fallen star. | | | | |
|
|
