WHICH IS BEST?
In sadness to sigh for the pleasures of youth?
Or, with souls wiser grown, taking counsel of Truth,
While pluming our wings for a flight from our cage,
To joyfully sing of the pleasures of age.
Or, with souls wiser grown, taking counsel of Truth,
While pluming our wings for a flight from our cage,
To joyfully sing of the pleasures of age.
O! not till the day's long toil is done,
And the gathering shades of night steal on;
Do the stars look down, through yon azure vault flying,
Bright, passionless, calm, like the eyes of the dying.
And the gathering shades of night steal on;
Do the stars look down, through yon azure vault flying,
Bright, passionless, calm, like the eyes of the dying.
From a fevered dream as the weary one wakes,
When health the strong fetters of suffering breaks;
To the chastened soul, seems a new power given,
Rightly to weigh the worlds, earth and heaven.
When health the strong fetters of suffering breaks;
To the chastened soul, seems a new power given,
Rightly to weigh the worlds, earth and heaven.
We say—'tis well to launch a bark,
That shall plough the wide sea, cold and dark;
That shall plough the wide sea, cold and dark;
