Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FLOWER OF YOUTH, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FLOWER OF YOUTH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lest heaven be thronged with grey-beards hoary
Last Line: "and say: ""thank god, he has enough!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): God; Heaven; World War I; Youth; Paradise; First World War


LEST Heaven be thronged with grey-beards hoary,
God, who made boys for His delight,
Stoops in a day of grief and glory
And calls them in, in from the night.
When they come trooping from the war
Our skies have many a young new star.

Heaven's thronged with gay and careless faces,
New-waked from dreams of dreadful things,
They walk in green and pleasant places
And by the crystal water-springs,
Who dreamt of dying and the slain,
And the fierce thirst and the strong pain.

Dear boys! They shall be young for ever.
The Son of God was once a boy.
They run and leap by a clear river
And of their youth they have great joy.
God who made boys so clean and good
Smiles with the eyes of fatherhood.

Now Heaven is by the young invaded;
Their laughter's in the House of God.
Stainless and simple as He made it,
God keeps the heart o' the boy unflawed.
The old wise Saints look on and smile,
They are so young and without guile.

Oh, if the sonless mothers weeping,
And widowed girls, could look inside
The glory that hath them in keeping
Who went to the Great War and died,
They would rise and put their mourning off,
And say: "Thank God, he has enough!"





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