To-day

John Boyle O'Reilly 1844 (Dowth) – 1890 (Boston)



Only from day to day
The life of a wise man runs:
What matter if seasons far away
Have gloom or have double suns?

To climb the unreal path,
We stray from the roadway here;
We swim the rivers of wrath,
And tunnel the hills of fear.

Our feet on the torrent's brink,
Our eyes on the cloud afar,
We fear the things we think,
Instead of the things that are.

Like a tide our work should rise—
Each later wave the best;
To-day is a king in disguise,
To-day is the special test.

Like a sawyer's work is life:
The present makes the flaw,
And the only field for strife
Is the inch before the saw.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

36 sec read
70

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CXCX DEDE FGFG HIHI
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 584
Words 119
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

John Boyle O'Reilly

John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer. more…

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    "To-day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/22095/to-day>.

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