Page:Famous Single Poems (1924).djvu/286

 Take the lesson to thyself,
 * True and loving heart;

Golden youth is fleeting by,
 * Summer hours depart;

Learn to make the most of life,
 * Lose no happy day;

Time will never bring thee back
 * Chances swept away!

Leave no tender word unsaid,
 * Love while love shall last —

“The mill cannot grind
 * With the water that is past.”

Work while yet the daylight shines,
 * Man of strength and will!

Never does the streamlet glide
 * Useless by the mill;

Wait not till to-morrow’s sun
 * Beams upon thy way,

All that thou canst call thine own
 * Lies in thy “To-day;”

Power, intellect and health
 * May not always last—

“The mill cannot grind
 * With the water that is past.”

Oh, the wasted hours of life
 * That have drifted by!

Oh, the good that might have been—
 * Lost, without a sigh!