Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A MESSAGE BACK TO YOUTH, by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON Poet's Biography First Line: They told me 'youth is all revolt Last Line: The better seeks the best. | ||||||||
THEY told me "Youth is all revolt, And age is all repose"; That Time would medicine my fault, As every graybeard knows; Him whom the misty Morn deceives Sage Noon from doubt would wean, As the sapling of the restless leaves Becomes an oak serene. They told me Love was strongest there, Unbridled by Content; Life's tame meridian years could ne'er Know passion so unpent. I heard their whispered counselings: "Be patient with his dreams, Time to the best ideal brings The verdict ` It but seems.'" But I have found not as they planned The scheme of good and ill. Though full in sight of Age I stand, I am a rebel still. For me and for my kind I feel The pathos of mistake, And covet knowledge for my zeal To help the world awake. I find in labyrinthine wrong But one -- Love's silken -- clew. The way from what we know, how long It lies, to what we do! Since there be wings the blue to cleave, Why be content to plod? Were man less laggard, he might leave The patience unto God. Still the weird figures in the mist, That held my youth in awe, Defy the toil of analyst To range them into law. And Love? -- What all the youthful fire (They said would die so soon), To wiser man's mature desire But dawn compared to noon? And though within my happy sight My children's children play, I find no fading of the light That made my magic day. The clearer vision but discerns The needs that Youth foreknew: More wonderful the sun that turns To rainbow in the dew. The world's heart still in Music beats Against this heart of mine, That, more than ever, gladly greets Day's pageantry divine. Still unappeased the boy's desire, Still tireless is the quest; As to the summit leaps the fire, The better seeks the best. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BROWNING AT ASOLO by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON DEWEY AT MANILA [MAY 1, 1898] by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON ILLUSIONS by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON THE WISTFUL DAYS by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A CHOPIN FANTASY (ON REMEMBRANCE OF A PRELUDE) by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A DARK DAY by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A LOVER'S ANSWER by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A MEMORY OF BRITTANY by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A PRAYER IN THE DARK by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON A SEPTEMBER VIOLET by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON |
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