 | The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley |  |
1354
YOUTH AND AGE
When in our blithest youth we sing,
We sing our saddest—slack the string
Of music into saddest key,
And sob, with voices quavering
In pangs of melody.
We sing our saddest—slack the string
Of music into saddest key,
And sob, with voices quavering
In pangs of melody.
When in maturer years—
When grown acquaint with sighs and tears—
Our voices ring a lighter tone,
Our perverse harp peals o'er the moan—
A pæan of hope that lifts and cheers.
When grown acquaint with sighs and tears—
Our voices ring a lighter tone,
Our perverse harp peals o'er the moan—
A pæan of hope that lifts and cheers.
And last, in age's bleak extreme,
With youth, life, love, all—all a dream,
What glad songs leap
To our glad lips—what raptures gleam
In the old eyes—too glad to weep.
With youth, life, love, all—all a dream,
What glad songs leap
To our glad lips—what raptures gleam
In the old eyes—too glad to weep.
| The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley | |