YE who would save your features florid, Lithe limbs, bright eyes, unwrinkled forehead From age's devastation horrid, Adopt this plan: -- 'Twill make, in climates cold or torrid, A hale old man. Avoid, in youth, luxurious diet, Restrain the passions' lawless riot; Devoted to domestic quiet, Be wisely gay: So shall ye, spite of age's fiat, Resist decay. Seek not in Mammon's worship pleasure, But find your richest, dearest treasure, In books, friends, music, polished leisure; The mind, not sense, Made the sole scale by which ye measure Your opulence. This is the solace, this the science, Life's purest, sweetest, best appliance, That disappoints not man's reliance, Whate'er his state; But challenges, with calm defiance, Time, fortune, fate. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFTER MUSIC by JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR by ROSSITER WORTHINGTON RAYMOND THE CHILD IN THE GARDEN by HENRY VAN DYKE FIRST CYCLE OF LOVE POEMS: 4 by GEORGE BARKER TO THE SKYLARK by BERNARD BARTON PSALME 137 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE TO THE BELGIANS by LAURENCE BINYON TAKE YOUR CHOICE: AS WALT MASON WOULD DO IT by BERTON BRALEY MAXIMS FOR THE OLD HOUSE: THE HEARTH by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |