"TO-DAY," I thought, "I will not plan nor strive; Idle as yon blue sky, or clouds that go Like loitering ships, with sails as white as snow, I simply will be glad to be alive." For, year by year, in steady summer glow The flowers had bloomed, and life had stored its hive, But tasted not the honey. Quite to thrive, The flavor of my thrift I now would know. But the good breeze blew in a friend -- a boon At any hour. There was a book to show, A gift to take, a slender one to give. The morning passed to mellow afternoon, And that to twilight; it was sleep-time soon, -- And lo! again I had forgot to live. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TRANSFORMATIONS by THOMAS HARDY THE ONE GRAY HAIR by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE BIRDS: THE HOOPOE'S CALL TO HIS WIFE PROCNE, THE NIGHTINGALE by ARISTOPHANES TO A GARDEN -- ON LEAVING IT by WILLIAM BARNES COMOS by ADRA CAROLINE BATCHELDER DOMINUS VINAEAE; SPIRITUS AGRICOLA by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 15. TROCHAIC VERSE: THE ELEVENTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION TO WILL D'AVENANT, MY FRIEND, UPON HIS POEM, 'MADAGASCAR' by THOMAS CAREW TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. NOT THE ACCEPTED TIME by EDWARD CARPENTER |