The Day

The Day by Theodore Spencer

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
Poems, 1940-1947
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1948.