University of Virginia Library

VI.
SOLITUDE; IN YOUTH AND AGE.

In youth we shrink from solitude!
Its quiet ways we shun,
Because our hearts are fain to dance
With others' in the sun;—
Life's nectar bubbling brightly up,
O'erfloweth toward our brother's cup.
In age we shrink from solitude,
Because our God is there;
And something in his “still, small voice”
Doth bid our souls “beware!”
Who flies from God and conscience, can
But seek his fellow-sinner—man!