Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IV. The Higher Life. 1904. | | | | III. Faith: Hope: Love: Service | | “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, | 5 |
| If the hours were few; | |
| We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresher power | |
| To be and to do. | |
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| We should guide our wayward or wearied wills | |
| By the clearest light; | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| With a trust complete. | |
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| 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; | 20 |
| 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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