University of Virginia Library

SORDID AGE AND ARTLESS YOUTH.

AGE.
TALK not thus, unthinking youth,
Darting the enthusiast eyes,
Of your justice, and your truth,
And the liberty you prize;
You are now to manhood risen,
Cast your cloister'd dreams away;
You must burst your mental prison,
And endure the light of day.

YOUTH.
Must I ever bid adieu
To the hopes I long have known,
And in sorrow find, like you,
That the dreams of youth are flown?
Must I check the glow of anguish
For a world so lost and blind?
And, beholding virtue languish,
Heap my praises on mankind?

AGE.
What is virtue but a name?
Phantom of the hermit's cell!
Those who covet wealth and fame,
Must with other beings dwell;
For the God whom men adore,
And whose laws alone can chain;
Interest is, as was before,
And for ever will remain.

YOUTH.
I will never meanly swerve
From the deed my heart allow'd,
I will never interest serve,
God of the ambitious crowd!
Wealth and fame, if these forsake me
For the loves my heart beguile;
Though at eve the storm o'ertake me,
In the morning I shall smile.

AGE.
What an infantine decision!
Think how all men will despise;
Can you bear the world's derision?
Can you meet their scornful eyes?
You may talk and you may blame,
Till with talking you are old;
In a world so dead to shame,
Virtue must be bought and sold.

YOUTH.
Never, never, ancient father!
Virtue must not stoop so low;
Truth and freedom I would rather
Honor, than all forms below;
These the spring of life shall nourish
When the wintry tempests sound;
Like the bay-tree, these shall flourish
Greener for the waste around.

AGE.
Thoughtless youth! you little know
What delusions round you throng;
You may feel your bosom glow,
At the sound of freedom's song;
You the rainbow tints may cast
O'er the forms that please your eye;
But, experience will at last
Show that all was vanity.

YOUTH.
Can it be that scenes so fair,
Marshall'd in their proud array,
Like the gorgeous glories are,
That follow on the parting day?
Must the youth whose heart aspires
To the beautiful and good,
Quench his first and best desires,
In Corruption's deadly flood?

AGE.
Yes, the youth must in the stream,
Plunge and leave them all behind;
Nor in manhood idly dream
Of friendship true, and justice blind.
From the first it was the rule
That strength should hold the sov'reignty,
All, are either knave or fool,
Such they were and still will be.

YOUTH.
Let me then awhile enjoy
Prospects that so soon must fade;
Why should gloomy fears annoy?
Why, the future, now invade?
Why should mariners, who gaze
At the blue and tranquil sky,
Looking on to stormy days,
Lose the pleasure that is nigh?

AGE.
I am fearful, you are bold,
And wish perpetual Spring to reign;
You are young, but I am old,
And tell you Winter must remain:
The fire of youth will soon subside,—
Its airy castles come to naught;
Then will you, with conscious pride,
Others teach as I have taught.

YOUTH.
Justice, teach, to treat with laughter!
Virtue, scoff at! vice pursue!
I have heard of an hereafter,
And believe that it is true!
But, if living, I must free
My nature from its Spring divine—
Father! may I never see
The Winter of an age like thine!