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From a London garden cover

From a London garden

Chapter 9: THE DAY BEYOND

By Arthur St. John Adcock

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About This Book

A collected series of lyrical poems moves between urban and rural imagery to reflect on love, mortality, time, memory, and moral growth. The poet uses concise, imagistic language and varied meters to meditate on human experience: longing and loss, pride and humility, the rhythms of city life and quiet country scenes, the passage of days and seasons, death and consolation. Voices range from personal confession to philosophical observation, with elegiac tones, religious reflection, and celebration of steadfastness. Recurring motifs—light and shadow, dawn and evening, gardens and streets—bind individual pieces into a contemplative portrait of inner life amid modern surroundings.

THE DAY BEYOND

When youth is with us, all things seem

But lightly to be wished and won;

We snare to-morrow in a dream,

And take our toll for work undone;

“For life is long and time a stream

That sleeps and sparkles in the sun—

What need of any haste?” we say,

“To-morrow’s longer than to-day.”

And when to-morrow shall destroy

The heaven of our dreams, in vain

Our hurrying manhood we employ

To build the vanished bliss again;

We have no leisure to enjoy,

“So few the years that yet remain,

So much to do, and ah!” we say,

“To-morrow’s shorter than to-day.”

But when our hands are worn and weak,

And still our labours seem unblest,

And time goes past us like a bleak

Last twilight waning to the west,

“It is not here—the bliss we seek,

Too brief is life for happy rest;

What need of any haste?” we say,

“To-morrow’s longer than to-day.”