Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A YOUTH, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A YOUTH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: See, with strong heart, o youth, the change
Last Line: Companionably down.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Growth; Soul; Youth


SEE, with strong heart, O youth, the change
Of mood and season in thy breast.
The intrepid soul that dares the wider range
Shall find securer rest.

The variable moods they breed
Are but as April sun and shower,
That only seem to hinder -- truly speed
Against the harvest hour.

Thy net in all rough waters cast,
In all fair pasturelands rejoice,
Thee shall such wealth of trials lead at last
To thy true home of choice.

So shalt thou grow, O youth, at length
Strong in endeavour, strong to bear
As having all things borne, thy lease of strength
Not perishable hair.

Not the frail tenement of health,
The uneasy mail of stoic pride
(A Nessus-shirt indeed!) the veer of wealth
In strong continual tide.

Not these, but in the constant heart,
That having all ways tried, at last
Holds, stout and patient, to the eternal chart,
Well tested in the past.

O, more than garlands for our heads,
Than drum and trumpet sounding loud,
As the long line of fluttering banners threads
The many-coloured crowd;

That sense of progress won with ease,
Of unconstrained advance in both,
Of the full circle finished -- such as trees
Feel in their own free growth.

So shall thy life to plains below,
O not unworthy of the crown!
Equal and pure, by lives yet purer, flow
Companionably down.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net