Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume II/To-Day

by Florence Earle Coates

For other versions of this work, see To-day (Coates).

TO-DAY

WHERE hast thou gone, my Day?
I meant to follow,
Extracting from thine every hour its sweet;
But thou, beguiling hope with pledges hollow,
Art flown on wingèd feet.

Hardly I greet thy morn,
The glory dwindles;
And as I plan thy moments with delight,
The evening-primrose in my pathway kindles
Her taper for the night.

Ah, too precipitate!
Might I not linger
To gather a stray blossom by the way,
But pointing onward with thy warning finger,
Thou must outstrip me, Day?

Gladly I welcomed thee,
An eager lover
Who deemed he knew each fleeting moment's cost,
Is there no way, no method, to recover
The treasure I have lost?

Ah, no! From Time, alas!
One may not borrow;
Nor move him what is squandered to restore.
The tide flows back, and there may dawn a morrow.
Thee I shall find no more.