Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: I. Time | | To-morrow | | Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) |
| | From “Irene”
TO-MORROW’S action! can that hoary wisdom, | |
| Borne down with years, still doat upon to-morrow! | |
| The fatal mistress of the young, the lazy, | |
| The coward and the fool, condemned to lose | |
| An useless life in waiting for to-morrow, | 5 |
| To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow, | |
| Till interposing death destroys the prospect. | |
| Strange that this general fraud from day to day | |
| Should fill the world with wretches, undetected! | |
| The soldier, laboring through a winter’s march, | 10 |
| Still sees to-morrow drest in robes of triumph; | |
| Still to the lover’s long-expecting arms | |
| To-morrow brings the visionary bride. | |
| But thou, too old to bear another cheat, | |
| Learn that the present hour alone is man’s. | 15 | | | |
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