Mary Lowe Dickinson tells what we would do if we had only a day to live.
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 our hours were few;
We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresher power
To be and to do.
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 from our clamorous selves set free
To work or to pray,
And to be what our Father would have us be,
If we had but a day.
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