“If we had but a day”

Mary Lowe Dickinson (1839–1914)

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.