Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHEN I AM OLD..., by LEO LARGUIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHEN I AM OLD..., by                    
First Line: When I am old and poet of renown
Last Line: And this poor laurel of a glorious name.
Subject(s): Aging; Life; Love; Memory


WHEN I am old and poet of renown,
And walk with tottering steps and brow bent down,
And think of nothing but my verses spread
Like swarms of singing bees about my head --
Where will you be, O my dear love of old?
There in the dusk of life and fame, behold,
I shall be sad, watching the late hours fly,
And follow with an old man's desolate eye
Some lass of twenty trip on footsteps light,
Wearing a pastoral hat with flowers of white,
Just like the hat you wore in other days.
I'll see the inn once more, the wood, the ways,
And all our Autumn journey take again!
I'll people with regret and longing vain
Our village of dead days! O memory,
So rich in deathless things, yet doomed to die
Although the roses bloom forevermore!
Dear love, dear love, beside my closed door
Alone I'll sit and watch in gathering damp
Life's barren evening flicker like a lamp.
Upon the garden bench where Autumn sees
The first rain spray, the first leaf in the breeze
Fall like a stricken bird upon the way,
I shall re-live that Autumn day by day --
All! . . . Yet to see in very truth what's gone:
The bracelet on your round arm in the dawn
When you pushed back the small green shutters where
The dewy vines shone in the limpid air,
To see again your smile, your forehead's white,
The brown tress hiding it in full moon-light --
Old and renowned, in my dull evenfall,
I would give up my portion in that fame
Which history grants to hearts made musical,
And this poor laurel of a glorious name.





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