Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
To-day
By Milicent Washburn Shinn (1858–1940)“O
A thousand years to come
Thy pain will all have passed away,
Thy crying shall be dumb:
As gayly bird-wings o’er the river
Shall gleam with life that once was thine,
As if this pulse, with pain a-quiver,
Still leaped, with gladness half-divine:
To thee, to all, it is as one
When once thy restless years are done.”
And think to still it so!
It cries back unto all your art,
With pleading, “Ah, no, no!
For gladness dies as well as sorrow;
Then let me live, since I must die.
Ah, quick, for death will come to-morrow—
Quick, ere my years in vain go by!
Because to-morrow I am clay,
Give me my happiness to-day!”