SEE, with strong heart, O youth, the change Of mood and season in thy breast. The intrepid soul that dares the wider range Shall find securer rest. The variable moods they breed Are but as April sun and shower, That only seem to hinder -- truly speed Against the harvest hour. Thy net in all rough waters cast, In all fair pasturelands rejoice, Thee shall such wealth of trials lead at last To thy true home of choice. So shalt thou grow, O youth, at length Strong in endeavour, strong to bear As having all things borne, thy lease of strength Not perishable hair. Not the frail tenement of health, The uneasy mail of stoic pride (A Nessus-shirt indeed!) the veer of wealth In strong continual tide. Not these, but in the constant heart, That having all ways tried, at last Holds, stout and patient, to the eternal chart, Well tested in the past. O, more than garlands for our heads, Than drum and trumpet sounding loud, As the long line of fluttering banners threads The many-coloured crowd; That sense of progress won with ease, Of unconstrained advance in both, Of the full circle finished -- such as trees Feel in their own free growth. So shall thy life to plains below, O not unworthy of the crown! Equal and pure, by lives yet purer, flow Companionably down. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO EMILIE BIGELOW HAPGOOD - PHILANTHROPIST by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CHANGE by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS JOHN PELHAM by JAMES RYDER RANDALL IN MEMORY OF AGOSTINO ISOLA, OF CAMBRIDGE, WHO DIED 1797 by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS ON A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN TO THE PRESIDENT OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES |