The Longest Day - William Wordsworth

Lyrics

Let us quit the leafy arbor And the torrent murmuring by; For the sun is in his harbor Weary of the open sky Evening now unbinds the fetters Fashioned by the glowing light; All that breathe are thankful debtors To the harbinger of night Yet by some grave thoughts attended Eve renews her calm career; For the day that now is ended Is the longest of the year Dora! sport, as now thou sportest On this platform, light and free; Take thy bliss, while longest, shortest Arе indifferent to thee! Who would check thе happy feeling That inspires the linnet's song? Who would stop the swallow, wheeling On her pinions swift and strong? Yet at this impressive season Words which tenderness can speak From the truths of homely reason Might exalt the loveliest cheek; And, while shades to shades succeeding Steal the landscape from the sight I would urge this moral pleading Last forerunner of "Good night!" Summer ebbs; — each day that follows Is a reflux from on high Tending to the darksome hollows Where the frosts of winter lie He who governs the creation In his providence, assigned Such a gradual declination To the life of human kind Yet we mark it not; — fruits redden Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown And the heart is loth to deaden Hopes that she so long hath known Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden! And when thy decline shall come Let not dowers, or boughs fruit-laden Hide the knowledge of thy doom Now, even now, ere wrapped in slumber Fix thine eyes upon the sea That absorbs time, space, and number; Look thou to Eternity! Follow thou the flowing river On whose breast are thither borne All deceived, and each deceiver Through the gates of night and morn; Through the year's successive portals; Through the bounds which many a star Marks, not mindless of frail mortals When his light returns from far Thus when thou with Time hast travelled Toward the mighty gulf of things And the mazy stream unravelled With thy best imaginings; Think, if thou on beauty leanest Think how pitiful that stay Did not virtue give the meanest Charms superior to decay Duty, like a strict preceptor Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown; Choose her thistle for thy sceptre While youth's roses are thy crown Grasp it, — if thou shrink and tremble Fairest damsel of the green Thou wilt lack the only symbol That proclaims a genuine queen; And ensures those palms of honor Which selected spirits wear Bending low before the Donor Lord of heaven's unchanging year!