 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
196
The Day not for Gain
When comes the sun to visit thee at morn,Art thou prepared to give him welcome then?
Or is the day, that with his light is born,
With thee, a day that has already been.
Hast thou filled up its yet unnumbered hours
With selfish thoughts, and made them now thine own?
Then not for thee will bloom its budding flowers,
The day, to thee, has past, and onward flown.
The noon may follow with its quickening heat,
The grain grow yellow in its ripening rays;
And dusky evening mark the noon's retreat,
Yet thou as dead to them live all thy days;
For thou hast made of God's free gifts a gain,
And would'st the sovereign Day, a slave, in bonds retain.
Poem No. 784; fall 1839
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |