Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AFTERGLOW, by DONA WAYLAND


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AFTERGLOW, by                    
First Line: Great - grandma sat in her hickory chair
Last Line: "that keeps us forever young."
Subject(s): Aging


Great-grandma sat in her hickory chair
In the dusk of the long ago;
On her knee was spread an old scrapbook,
And she read in the dim afterglow:
"I am not old, I cannot be old,
Though threescore years and ten
Have waved away, like a tale that is told,
The lives of many men."

Grandmother sat in the same old chair
When her hair was white as the snow;
Turning pages of the same old book,
She read in a voice, soft and low:
"I am not old, I cannot be old,
Though tottering, wrinkled, and gray;
Though my eyes be dim, and my marrow cold,
Call me not old today!"

Then mother sat in that hickory chair
In a faraway western land;
As the years sped past, she too would read,
As she held the book in her hand:
"A dream, a dream, -- it is all a dream!
A strange, sad dream, good sooth;
For old as I am, and old as I seem,
My heart is full of youth."

The same chair stands beside my fireplace; --
It is sturdy, though black with age;
And on it I keep the old scrapbook
And I read from a yellowed page:
"Forever young -- though Life's old age
Hath every nerve unstrung;
The heart, the heart is the heritage
That keeps us forever young."





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net