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HUMAN LIFE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sad is our youth, for it is ever going
Last Line: Not for their sake, but his who grants them or denies them!
Variant Title(s): Sad And Sweet;all Things Sweet When Prized
Subject(s): Consolation


Sad is our youth, for it is ever going,
Crumbling away beneath our very feet;
Sad is our life, for onward it is flowing
In current unperceived, because so fleet;
Sad are our hopes, for they were sweet in sowing, --
But tares, self-sown, have overtopped the wheat;
Sad are our joys, for they were sweet in blowing, --
And still, O, still their dying breath is sweet;
And sweet is youth, although it hath bereft us
Of that which made our childhood sweeter still;
And sweet is middle life, for it hath left us
A nearer good to cure an older ill;
And sweet are all things, when we learn to prize them,
Not for their sake, but His who grants them or denies them!




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