WHEN you are old, and I -- if that should be -- Lying afar in undistinguished earth, And you no more have all your will of me, To teach me morals, idleness, and mirth, But, curtained from the bleak December nights, You sit beside the else-deserted fire And 'neath the glow of double-polèd lights, Till your alert eyes and quick judgement tire, Turn some new poet's page, and to yourself Praise his new satisfaction of new need, Then pause and look a little toward the shelf Where my books stand which none but you shall read: And say: "I too was not ungently sung When I was happy, beautiful, and young." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...1914: 4. THE DEAD by RUPERT BROOKE THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS [MAY 9, 1775] by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT OF TREASON by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS THE DRUM by JOHN SCOTT (1730-1783) TIPPERARY: 5. BY OUR OWN EUGENE FIELD by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS RUTH by CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER SWORD AND BUCKLER; OR, SERVING-MAN'S DEFENCE: INTRODUCTION by WILLIAM BASSE |