YE who would save your features florid, Lithe limbs, bright eyes, unwrinkled forehead From age's devastation horrid, Adopt this plan: -- 'Twill make, in climates cold or torrid, A hale old man. Avoid, in youth, luxurious diet, Restrain the passions' lawless riot; Devoted to domestic quiet, Be wisely gay: So shall ye, spite of age's fiat, Resist decay. Seek not in Mammon's worship pleasure, But find your richest, dearest treasure, In books, friends, music, polished leisure; The mind, not sense, Made the sole scale by which ye measure Your opulence. This is the solace, this the science, Life's purest, sweetest, best appliance, That disappoints not man's reliance, Whate'er his state; But challenges, with calm defiance, Time, fortune, fate. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A LUTE FOUND IN A SARCOPHAGUS by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE THE MINSTREL BOY by THOMAS MOORE THE GODODDIN: CARADOC by ANEIRIN SONG OF THE FATHERLAND by ERNST MORITZ ARNDT SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 26. BEYOND by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) REMINISCENCE by LYLE BARTSCHER URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THE SECOND CANTO, OR FIRST QUARTER by WILLIAM BASSE |