Old Year Leaves Being Old Verses Revised: By H. T. Mackenzie Bell ... New Edition |
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 | Old Year Leaves |  |
After five years!
What changes will have come
Among the circle of our firmest friends!
Some will have gone to widely severed lands,—
While others—than whom none seemed closer bound
In silken chains of love—will then perchance,
Urged by some paltry source of petty feud,
Made greater by their pride, have ceased to meet
In harmony. And silent callous Death
Will certainly have stayed the mortal course
Of not a few, though friends we have not now
We shall know then.
What changes will have come
Among the circle of our firmest friends!
Some will have gone to widely severed lands,—
While others—than whom none seemed closer bound
In silken chains of love—will then perchance,
Urged by some paltry source of petty feud,
Made greater by their pride, have ceased to meet
In harmony. And silent callous Death
Will certainly have stayed the mortal course
Of not a few, though friends we have not now
We shall know then.
In circumstances also
What changes will have dawned! The man esteemed
Almost a pauper now may then have wealth
Unbounded,—he whose store of riches seems
Limitless now may be a beggar then.
He who enjoys the bliss of nerveless health
May then be broken down and weak of limb,
While he who now an invalid, though dowered
With youth, his ills all conquered, may be strong.
What changes will have dawned! The man esteemed
Almost a pauper now may then have wealth
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Limitless now may be a beggar then.
He who enjoys the bliss of nerveless health
May then be broken down and weak of limb,
While he who now an invalid, though dowered
With youth, his ills all conquered, may be strong.
| Old Year Leaves | |