Poems (Cromwell)/Education
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EDUCATION
I had lived many years when first I met
What men call Sorrow. I had long conceived
A semblance of it, thought I had achieved
That magnitude. when side by side I set
My lonely days. I knew the alphabet
Of Life's experience, and I believed
That when I touched another's grief,
I grieved;—
But when at last I was myself beset,
I marvelled. Little had I known. They told
Me and they showed me death, but finally,
Like shifting clouds no foresight can explain,
I felt the changeful years envelop me.
I was not loath to meet at last with pain,
But oh, to feel the youth my age could hold!
What men call Sorrow. I had long conceived
A semblance of it, thought I had achieved
That magnitude. when side by side I set
My lonely days. I knew the alphabet
Of Life's experience, and I believed
That when I touched another's grief,
I grieved;—
But when at last I was myself beset,
I marvelled. Little had I known. They told
Me and they showed me death, but finally,
Like shifting clouds no foresight can explain,
I felt the changeful years envelop me.
I was not loath to meet at last with pain,
But oh, to feel the youth my age could hold!