English poem
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
by Edmund Vance Cooke (1866–1932)
Do you lazily nurse your knee and muse? Do you contemplate your conquering thews With a critical satisfaction? But yesterday's laurels are dry and dead And to-morrow's triumph is still ahead; To-day is the day for action.
Yesterday's sun: is it shining still? To-morrow's dawn: will its coming fill To-day, if to-day's light fail us? Not so. The past is forever past; To-day's is the hand which holds us fast, And to-morrow may never hail us.
The present and only the present endures, So it's hey for to-day! for to-day is yours For the goal you are still pursuing. What you have done is a little amount; What you will do is of lesser account, But the test is, what are you doing?