Why, as we near the Falls of Death, Time's course to slower speeding, When one by one our friends have gone Heaven gives our years of fading strength And those of youth a seeming length, G ATHER ye rosebuds as ye may, And this same flower that smiles to-day The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer ; But being spent, the worse and worst Time still succeed the former. Then be not coy, but use your time, And make their bed with thee. As Of ages glide away, the sons of me: The youth in life's green spring, an In the full strength of years, matro And the sweet babe, and the grayShall, one by one, be gathered to th By those who in their turn shall fol So live, that when thy summons The innumerable caravan that move To the pale realms of shade, where His chamber in the silent halls of Thou go not, like the quarry-slave a Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustai By an unfaltering trust, approach th Like one who wraps the drapery of About him, and lies down to pleasa Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old, Good or bad a thousand-fold! How widely its agencies vary, - To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless, As even its minted coins express, Now stamped with the image of good Queen Bess, And now of a Bloody Mary. WHO A HUNDRED YEARS TO COME. HO 'll press for gold this crowded street, Who'll tread yon church with willing feet, Pale, trembling age and fiery youth, And childhood with his brow of truth, Where will the mighty millions be, We all within our graves shall sleep. A hundred years to come. O the flutter of the fuss! To begin with Cain and Abel, And to finish up with us. Think of all the men and wom Who are now and who have Every nation since creation. That this world of ours has And of all of them, not any But was once a baby small; While of children, O, how man Never have grown up at all! Some have never laughed or sp Never used their rosy feet; Some have even flown to heave Ere they knew that earth wa And indeed I wonder whether, If we reckon every birth, And bring such a flock together There is room for them on ea Who will wash their smiling fa Who their saucy ears will bo Who will dress them and caress Who will darn their little so Where are arms enough to hold Hands to pat each shining he Who will praise them? who will scold them? Who will pack them off to bed? Little happy Christian children, That our planet ever knew! Only think of the confusion Such a motley crowd would make! And the clatter of their chatter, And the things that they would break! O the babble of the Babel! O the flutter of the fuss! To begin with Cain and Abel, And to finish up with us! TE In the season of our life; There are wild despairing moments; Youth and love are oft impatient, Seeking things beyond their reach; |