Sweet summer day, — how calm, how bright

Sweet summer day, — how calm, how bright,
How beautiful art thou,
Mirth waits around thy path of light,
And sunshine gilds thy brow:

The fairest flowers earth bestows
Are blooming at thy feet,
The gentlest — youngest breeze that blows
Sighs round thee soft and sweet.

The soul— refresh'd and gladden'd — soars
Exultingly above!
And, lost in ecstasy, — adores
God in His works of love;

But soon the longest — loveliest day
Yields up its short delight,
And smiles and sunshine fade away,
Wrapt in the clouds of night.

Why live we then for fleeting hours,
Whose beauty and whose bloom, —
Whose brightest scenes and fairest flowers,
Smile only round the tomb?

Ours be the sunshine of a face
That knows no shade or frown,
A long bright summer day of grace
Whose sun no more goes down!