WE should fill the hours with the sweetest things,
If we had but a day ;
We should drink alone at the purest springs
On our upward way ;
We should love with a lifetime's love in an hour,
If the hours were few ;
We should sleep, not for dreams, but for fresher power,
To be and to do.

We should hold our wearied or wayward wills
To the clearest light ;
We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills,
If they lay in sight ;
We should hush our murmurs of discontent
At a life's defeat ;
We should take whatever a good God sent
With a rest complete.

We should waste no moment in weak regret,
If the days were but one,
If what we remember and what we forget
Went out with the sun ;
We should be from our clamorous selves set free,
To work and to pray ;
To be what the Father would have us be,
If we had but a day.