IF only I might love my God and die! -- But now He bids me love Him and live on, Now when the bloom of all my life is gone, The pleasant half of life has quite gone by. My tree of hope is lopt that spread so high; And I forget how summer glowed and shone, While autumn grips me with its fingers wan, And frets me with its fitful windy sigh. When autumn passes then must winter numb, And winter may not pass a weary while. But when it passes spring shall flower again: And in that spring who weepeth now shall smile -- Yea, they shall wax who now are on the wane, Yea, they shall sing for love when Christ shall come. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLESTON by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE AS I SIT WRITING HERE by WALT WHITMAN SABBATH HYMN by SOLOMON BEN MOSES HA-LEVI ALKABEZ THE YOUTH OF MAN by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE ICONOCLAST by WILLIAM ROSE BENET MILLCREEK by MATTIE-LOU BLACKWOOD IN BLOOMING ORCHARDS by JOHN BURROUGHS |