We will lay our summer away, my friend, <br /> So tenderly lay it away. <br />It was bright and sweet to the very end, <br /> Like one long, golden day. <br />Nothing sweeter could come to me, <br /> Nothing sweeter to you. <br />We will lay it away, and let it be, <br /> Hid from the whole world’s view. <br /> <br />We will lay it away like a dear, dead thing – <br /> Dead, yet for ever fair; <br />And the fresh green robes of a deathless spring, <br /> Though dead, it shall alaways wear. <br />We will not hide it in grave or tomb, <br /> But lay it away to sleep, <br />Guarded by beauty, and light, and bloom, <br /> Wrapped in a slumber deep. <br /> <br />We were willing to let the summer go – <br /> Willing to go our own ways; <br />But never on earth again I know <br /> Will either find such days. <br />You are my friend, and it may seem strange, <br /> But I would not see you again; <br />I would think of you, though all things change, <br /> Just as I knew you then. <br /> <br />If we should go back to the olden place, <br /> And the summer time went too, <br />It would be like looking a ghost in the face, <br /> So much would be changed and new. <br />We cannot live it over again, <br /> Not even a single day; <br />And as something sweet, and free from pain, <br /> We had better let it away.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lay-it-away/
