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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO CRITICS by WALTER LEARNED

First Line: WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN I HEARD
Last Line: HAVE PASSED IT IN MY SLEEP.
Subject(s): CRITICS & CRITICISM;

WHEN I was seventeen I heard
From each censorious tongue,
"I'd not do that if I were you;
You see you're rather young."

Now that I number forty years,
I'm quite as often told
Of this or that I should n't do
Because I'm quite too old.

O carping world! If there's an age
Where youth and manhood keep
An equal poise, alas! I must
Have passed it in my sleep.



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