Grow old along with me!
    The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
    Our times are in His hand
Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be
            afraid!'

    Not that, amassing flowers,
    Youth sighed, 'Which rose make ours,
Which lily leave and then as best recall?'
    Not that, admiring stars,
    It yearned, 'Nor Jove, nor Mars;
Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends
            them all!'

    Not for such hopes and fears
    Annulling youth's brief years,
Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!
    Rather I prize the doubt
    Low kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

    Poor vaunt of life indeed,
    Were man but formed to feed
On joy, to solely seek and find and feast;
    Such feasting ended, then
    As sure an end to men;
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the
            maw-crammed beast?
    Rejoice we are allied
    To That which doth provide
And not partake, effect and not receive!
    A spark disturbs our clod;
    Nearer we hold of God
Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

    Then, welcome each rebuff
    That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
    Be our joys three-parts pain!
    Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge
            the throe!

    For thence,—a paradox
    Which comforts while it mocks,—
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
    What I aspired to be,
    And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink
    i' the scale.

    What is he but a brute
    Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
    To man, propose this test—
    Thy body at its best,
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?
    Yet gifts should prove their use:
    I own the Past profuse
Of power each side, perfection every turn:
    Eyes, ears took in their dole,
    Brain treasured up the whole;
Should not the heart beat once 'How good to
            live and learn'?

    Not once beat 'Praise be thine!
    I see the whole design,
I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:
    Perfect I call thy plan:
    Thanks that I was a man!
Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou
            shalt do!'

    For pleasant is this flesh;
    Our soul, in its rose-mesh
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest:
    Would we some prize might hold
    To match those manifold
Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best!

    Let us not always say,
    'Spite of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!'
    As the bird wings and sings,
    Let us cry, 'All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than
            flesh helps soul!'
    Therefore I summon age
    To grant youth's heritage,
Life's struggle having so far reached its term:
    Thence shall I pass, approved
    A man, for aye removed
From the developed brute; a god though in the
        germ.

    And I shall thereupon
    Take rest, ere I be gone
Once more on my adventure brave and new:
    Fearless and unperplexed,
    When I wage battle next,
What weapons to select, what armour to indue.

    Youth ended, I shall try
    My gain or loss thereby;
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:
    And I shall weigh the same,
    Give life its praise or blame:
Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.

    For, note when evening shuts,
    A certain moment cuts
The deed off, calls the glory from the grey:
    A whisper from the west
    Shoots—'Add this to the rest,
    Take it and try its worth: here dies another day.'

    So, still within this life,
    Though lifted o'er its strife,
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,
    'This rage was right i' the main,
    That acquiescence vain:
The Future I may face now I have proved the
            Past.'

    For more is not reserved
    To man, with soul just nerved
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:
    Here, work enough to watch
    The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

    As it was better, youth
    Should strive, through acts uncouth,
Toward making, than repose on aught found made:
    So, better, age, exempt
    From strife, should know, than tempt
Further. Thou waitedst age: wait death nor be afraid!

    Enough now, if the Right
    And Good and Infinite
Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own,
    With knowledge absolute,
    Subject to no dispute
From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel
            alone.

    Be there, for once and all,
    Severed great minds from small,
Announced to each his station in the Past!
    Was I, the world arraigned,
    Were they, my soul disdained,
Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace
            at last!

    Now, who shall arbitrate?
    Ten men love what I hate,
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;
    Ten, who in ears and eyes
    Match me: we all surmise,
They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my
            soul believe?

    Not on the vulgar mass
    Called 'work', must sentence pass,
Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
    O'er which, from level stand,
    The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:

    But all, the world's coarse thumb
    And finger failed to plumb,
So passed in making up the main account;
    All instinct immature,
    All purposes unsure,
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled
    the man's amount:

    Thoughts hardly to be packed
    Into a narrow act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped;
    All I could never be,
    All, men ignored in me,
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher
            shaped.

    Ay, note that Potter's wheel,
    That metaphor!
and feel
Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—
    Thou, to whom fools propound,
    When the wine makes its round,
'Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize
            to-day!'

    Fool! All that is, at all,
    Lasts ever, past recall;
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
    What entered into thee,
    That was, is, and shall be:
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay
            endure.

    He fixed thee mid this dance
    Of plastic circumstance,
This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:
    Machinery just meant
    To give thy souls its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.

    What though the earlier grooves
    Which ran the laughing loves
Around thy base, no longer pause and press?
    What though about thy rim,
    Skull-things in order grim
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?

    Look not thou down but up!
    To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's peal,
    The new wine's foaming flow,
    The Master's lips a-glow!
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st
    thou with earth's wheel?

    But I need, now as then,
    Thee, God, who mouldest men;
And since, not even while the whirl was worst,
    Did I—to the wheel of life
    With shapes and colours rife,
Bound dizzily,—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst:

    So, take and use Thy work,
    Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the
            aim!
    My times be in Thy hand!
    Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete
            the same!