Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OLD AGE, by EDITH BLAND NESBIT Poet's Biography First Line: Between the midnight and the morn Last Line: Until thyself shall wish them dead!' Alternate Author Name(s): Nesbit, E.; Bland, Mrs. Hubert Subject(s): Old Age; Socialism | ||||||||
BETWEEN the midnight and the morn When wake the weary heart and head, Troops of gray ghosts from lands forlorn Keep tryst about my sleepless bed. I hear their cold, thin voices say: 'Your youth is dying; by-and-by All that makes up your life to-day Withered by age, will shrink and die!' Will it be so? Will age slay all The dreams of love and hope and faith -- Put out the sun beyond recall, And lap us in a living death? Will hearts grown old forget their youth? And hands grown old give up the strife? Shall we accept as ordered truth The dismal anarchy of life? Better die now -- at once be free Of hope and fear -- renounce the whole: For of what worth would living be Should one -- grown old -- outlive one's soul? Yet see: through curtains closely drawn Creeps in the exorcising light; The sacred fingers of the dawn Put all my troop of ghosts to flight. And then I hear the brave Sun's voice, Though still the skies are gray and dim; 'Old age comes never -- Oh, rejoice -- Except to those who beckon him. 'All that youth's dreams are nourished by, By that shall dreams in age be fed -- Thy noble dreams can never die Until thyself shall wish them dead!' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. CONCLUSION by EDWARD CARPENTER THE SOCIALIST AND THE SUFFRAGIST by CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON GILMAN THE NEW MILLENNIUM; A VISION IN THE STRAND by ANDREW LANG MICE by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY WHY I VOTED THE SOCIALIST TICKET by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY A LITTLE SONG ABOUT CHARITY by THOMAS MCGRATH A WARRANT FOR PABLO NERUDA by THOMAS MCGRATH BLUES FOR THE OLD REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN by THOMAS MCGRATH BLUES FOR WARREN by THOMAS MCGRATH A BALLAD OF CANTERBURY by EDITH BLAND NESBIT |
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