The youth should be normal with laughter and song; Both carefree and happy, if youth would be strong. But youth should be guided that work may be gain; And taught to think twice ere inflicting a pain. Youth comes but once to each soul while on earth; So youth should learn things of superior worth. Old age comes to all who outlive their full prime; And thoughts that they sow come to harvest in time. Emotions write autographs on the old face, A book of memoirs that they cannot misplace. And no book can equal the age-mellowed mind Whose triumphs were never too great to be kind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFTER PARTING by SARA TEASDALE SICILIAN EMIGRANT'S SONG by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE LITTLE DANCERS by LAURENCE BINYON TO E. T.: 1917 by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE WOMEN MEN'S SHADOWS by BEN JONSON AN ATHENIAN GARDEN by TRUMBULL STICKNEY ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 10. TO THOMAS EDWARDS, ON ... POPE'S WORKS by MARK AKENSIDE |