ANOTHER Winter comes. The last comes soon, I know. For six and fifty years have blanched my head with snow. The time is here to say, Farewell, to love and song, And take my leave of life's best days, for oh! how long! . . . Yet I have lived. So much stands safe beyond recall. I grudge not life its joys. I have tasted one and all, Nor e'er refrained my hand from pleasures within reach, Save but as Reason set due measure unto each. The part assigned me I have played on this life's stage In costume fitted to the times and to my age. I've seen the morning dawn, and evening come again. I've seen the storm, the lightning-flash, the hail, the rain. Peoples I've seen, and kings! -- For twenty years now past I've seen each day rise upon France as though her last. Wars I have seen, and strife of words, and terms of truce First made and then unmade again, then made by ruse To break and make again! . . . I've seen that neath the moon All was but change and chance, and danced to Fortune's tune. Though man seek Prudence out for guide, it boots him naught; Fate ineluctable doth hold him chained and caught, Bound hand and foot, in prison; and all he may propose Fortune and Fate, wisely mayhap, themselves dispose. Full-feasted of the world, even as a wedding-guest Goes from the banquet-hall, I go to my long rest; As from a king's great feast, I go not with ill grace Though after me one come, and take the abandoned place. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DEFENSE OF THE ALAMO [MARCH 6, 1835] by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER NORTHERN FARMER, NEW STYLE by ALFRED TENNYSON THE LION'S SKELETON by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER A CURE FOR POETRY by ANNABELLA (GUISE) BLOUNT |