University of Virginia Library

I do complete this day my fiftieth year:
But were it not that tell-tale gray hath spread
A mantle not of youth upon my head;
And that, forsooth! about my eyes appear
A few small wrinkles; and that, likewise, here
And there a joint is not as once it was,
Springy and nimble as a deer's, but does
Impede somewhat my motions when I try
The heartier games of early manhood, I
Should count myself upon life's threshold yet:
For in my spirit live its olden fires,
And at my heart still quicken the desires
That moved me ere the fever and the fret
Of life had somewhat worn my nature down.
Sleeping or waking, oft I still dream dreams,
And still see visions; and the shadowy brown
Of evening, as the purpling morning, teems
With spirit-forms and spirit-tones, that lift
My soul from out the dismal days, that drift
Me onward, onward, like a very leaf.
I do, or think and feel I do, behold
The chart of Truth before my eyes unroll'd:
And it has been and now is my belief,
That only in their sins do men grow old.
Virtues are like perpetual springs, that keep
Greenness and bloom about them evermore:
But vices, like destroying gales that sweep
O'er ocean, and lay waste from shore to shore.
Faith grows not feeble: Hope is ever young:
And Charity is gifted like a god
With comeliness and ardor. Valor sprung
An Athlete from his birth, and went abroad
For high emprises, and is Athlete still:
Endurance is another name for will,
Which time o'ercomes not: patience, meekness, love,
That came from and shall yet return above,
Weary not in the ceaseless march of years.
Nothing man knows or is, but Sin, grows old;
And she a wrinkled, loathsome hag appears,
Ere half a life hath half its seasons told.

Beautiful, beautiful Youth! that in the soul
Liveth forever, where sin liveth not.
How fresh Creation's chart doth still unroll
Before our eyes, although the little spot
That knows us now, shall know us soon no more
Forever! We look backward, and before,
And inward, and we feel there is a life
Impelling us, that need not with this frame
Or flesh grow feeble, but for aye the same
May live on, e'en amid this worldly strife,
Clothed with the beauty and the freshness still
It brought with it at first; and that it will
Glide almost imperceptibly away,
Taking no taint of this dissolving clay;
And, joining with the incorruptible
And spiritual body that awaits
Its coming at the starr'd and golden gates
Of Heaven, move on with the celestial train
Whose shining vestments, as along they stray,
Flash with the splendors of eternal day;
And mingle with its Primal Source again,
Where Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love and Truth,
Dwell with the Godhead in immortal youth.