_______________

When we are old and these rejoicing veins

Are frosty channels to a muted stream,

And out of all our burning there remains

No feeblest spark to fire us, even in dream,

This be our solace: that it was not said

When we were young and warm and in our our prime,

Upon our couch we lay as lie the dead,

Sleeping away the unreturning time.

O sweet, O heavy-lidded, O my love,

When morning strikes her spear upon the land,

And we must rise and arm us and reprove

The insolent daylight with a steady hand,

Be not discountenanced if the knowing know

We rose from rapture but an hour ago.

_______________