Page:Poems by Frances Fuller Victor.djvu/38

 A SUMMER DAY.

Fade not, sweet day!

Another hour like this—

So full of tranquil bliss—

May never come my way,

I walk in paths so shadowed and so cold;

But stay thou, darling hour,

Nor stint thy gracious power

To smile away the clouds that me enfold;

Oh, stay! when thou art gone,

I shall be lost and lone.

Lost, lone, and sad;

And troubled more and more,

By the dark ways, and sore,

In which my feet are led;—

Alas my heart, it was not always so;

Therefore, O happy day,

Haste not to fade away,

Nor let pale night chill all thy tender glow—

Thy rosy mists, that steep

The violet hills to sleep—

Thy airs of gold,

That over all the plain,

And fields of ripened grain,

A shimmering glory hold,— 32