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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BUT YOU WILL STAY by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

First Line: SOME RASCALS HURT A SMALLER BOY
Last Line: THEY GO, BUT YOU WILL STAY!

Some rascals hurt a smaller boy
In rough and brutal play.
"Don't mind such things," an old man said,
"They go, but you will stay."

Stout words are those for all that walk
The weary ways of men;
The woe, the fret we once have met
Will not return again;

They vanish like the skulking mist
The morning drives away,
To-morrow they will be forgot,
While we -- ah, we shall stay!

Above the shallow clouds of time
Our radiant souls will rise,
And what will be a nettle's prick
When we are in the skies?

And what will be earth's longest night
In heaven's endless day?
Forget the fears, the stings, the tears;
They go, but you will stay!



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