The Day / Theodore Spencer

The Day

The day was a year at first
When children ran in the garden;
The day shrank down to a month
When the boys played ball.

The day was a week thereafter
When young men walked in the garden;
The day was itself a day
When love grew tall.

The day shrank down to an hour
When old men limped in the garden;
The day will last forever
When it is nothing at all.

~~
Theodore Spencer (1902-1949)
from Poems, 1940-1947, 1948

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Theodore Spencer biography