Just For A Day

I didn't write this, but it touched me, and I wanted to park it here.

Just For A Day
By Rosa Garfield Clemens

Just for a day to put my sorrows by,
Forget that summer dies, that roses die,
And the swift swallow circling round the eaves, Leaves us with falling leaves.

Forget the sky shall lose its gold; the sea
Grow white in tempests; and the long nights be Forlorn of stars, and
dreary with the rains, Beating against the panes.

Forget that change is, and that sorrow is,
That souls grow tired, and sweetest memories In time turn bitter, and
the one sure friend, Is death, that makes an end.

Just for a day, to put aside the years
Washed clean of wrongs, of sins, of heavy tears, And dream that life is
fair, and love a truth, And youth is always youth.

That, if the swallow dies, 't is for a day,
To come again at dawn with merrier lay,
Learned in the old, fair lands, and the rose brings, New splendors with
new springs.

That God is near, and heaven near, and death, So far the young heart
scarcely reckoneth, The time by years and years, as now by days, And the
whole earth is praise.

And faith is as a spotless dove, with wings Unclogged with doubt, with
many questionings Unanswered; and the heart not yet doth tire, Of its ownvain desire.

Just for a day to put all sad things by,
Forget that dreams are dead, that dreams must die.
Joy is a breath, and
Hope a star that sets.
Forget as love forgets.

Akron, Ohio,
October, 1882
From the Victorian Poetry Gazzet