Dear friends, my solace in your gentle youth, Keep this, to be the comfort of your age, When sated eyes may prize a soberer page And visions, passing, leave the smile of truth. How full of empty passion and uncouth The pageant of the world's distracted stage! How fit for you and me the hermitage Of wise austerity and silent ruth! The idols of your life will one by one Desert you in your need: your young loves first, Then wife, then child, at last the sacred sun. Yet as you close your eyes, it will seem good To say: My life was not in all accurst; I suffered much, but something understood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STORM AT SEA (2) by ALCAEUS OF MYTILENE A MOUNTAIN SOUL (KATHARINE COMAN) by KATHARINE LEE BATES LOVE'S PHANTOM by MATHILDE BLIND DEAD LETTERS (T.L.H.) by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN CROSS-CURRENTS by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN THE TREE BUDS by KATE LOUISE BROWN EPISTOLA AD DAKYNS by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN ELEGY ON THE LATE MISS BURNET, OF MONBODDO by ROBERT BURNS ADVICE TO THE REVERENDS ON THEIR PREACHING SLOWLY by JOHN BYROM |