Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RETIREMENT DAYS, by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RETIREMENT DAYS, by                    
First Line: In my mountain retreat 'mid forest and lakes
Last Line: That gives solace and joy to these last.
Subject(s): Memory; Retirement; Silence; Solitude; Loneliness


In my mountain retreat 'mid forest and lakes
Where the beauties of nature abound,
I am lost to the world with its loves and its hates,
Where disappointment and sorrow are found.

Unnoticed I passed from where I was known,
From the turmoil and struggle of life,
Forgotten I rest where God watches alone,
Far away from the noise and the strife.

The world does not pause in its feverish haste,
In its selfish mad struggle for gain.
Its forces move on to conserve and to waste,
While travail and anguish maintain.

So here I will stay 'mid the scenes that I love,
Where peace reigns, beyond sound of the strife,
On God's footstool I rest, with His Heaven above,
In the sweet full enjoyment of life.

Unnoticed I passed, forgotten I stay,
Small matter would be my return;
Day follows night, and night follows day,
And the weeks and the months in their turn.

Forgotten! the word has a heartbreaking sound,
And memory brings tears to the eyes,
For the days that are past forever are gone,
And ambition protests ere it dies.

If loved ones but knew, they would pause in their ways
As they follow the trails we have made;
Just a thought and a word for the struggles of days
When foundations for building were laid.

In memory those days are as balm to the pain,
For the present was made by the past;
'Tis the fact that those days were not lived in vain
That gives solace and joy to these last.





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