"THERE are gains for all our losses." So I said when I was young. If I sang that song again, 'T would not be with that refrain, Which but suits an idle tongue. Youth has gone, and hope gone with it, Gone the strong desire for fame. Laurels are not for the old. Take them, lads. Give Senex gold. What's an everlasting name? When my life was in its summer One fair woman liked my looks: Now that Time has driven his plough In deep furrows on my brow, I'm no more in her good books. "There are gains for all our losses?" Grave beside the wintry sea, Where my child is, and my heart, For they would not live apart, What has been your gain to me? No, the words I sang were idle, And will ever so remain: Death, and Age, and vanished Youth All declare this bitter truth, There's a loss for every gain! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SPINNING SONG by JOHN FRANCIS O'DONNELL ON A BUST OF DANTE by THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS THE DARK FOREST by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS SONNET TO W-- P-- by BERNARD BARTON SEEKING WATERS by DORIS R. BECK A CHRISTMAS EVE CHORAL by BLISS CARMAN |