Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, YOUTH'S SECOND - SIGHT, by GEORGE DOUGLAS HOWARD COLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

YOUTH'S SECOND - SIGHT, by                    
First Line: They tell me I am over young to know
Last Line: Nor faint nor weary till the day is won.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cole, G. D. H.
Subject(s): Oxford University; Youth


THEY tell me I am over young to know:
They bid me wait
Ere I aspire to prate
And right from wrong in human things discern.
First they would have me learn
From hard experience in the mortal strife,
The ebb and flow,
The tossings to and fro,
That guide the changing courses of our life.
"These things, thou boy, thou art too young to know."

Life is the anaesthetic of the soul.
Here where men toil their famished mouths to fill,
Ideals wear but ill.
And like a blasted tree
That to the winds its lifeless members rears,
The hopeless worker cannot see, through tears,
Unto the perfect goal;
But in this creed lives down the struggling years.
"It has been ever, it must ever be."

O men, who have descended into Hell,
How can ye tell?
Your ears have no more knowledge of the truth,
The splendour is departed from your eyes,
And from your hearts the ruth.
Even now from my sight,
Youth's glorious vision, that was once so rife,
Is taking wings, and flies.
Not long for me Truth's lantern shall burn bright,
For eighteen years of age, and none of life.

O hearts that sleep, O spirits drugged with care
The night is nearly done.
O God, set love and pity in our souls,
That when the morning rolls
The weight of pain from every sleeper's eyes,
Our hearts again may rise,
And, putting off the weeds of old despair,
Wake and approve
The might of love,
Nor faint nor weary till the day is won.





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