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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  Old and Young

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Old and Young

By Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813–1892)

I.
THEY soon grow old who grope for gold

In marts where all is bought and sold;

Who live for self, and on some shelf

In darkened vaults hoard up their pelf,

Cankered and crusted o’er with mould.

For them their youth itself is old.

II.
They ne’er grow old who gather gold

Where spring awakes and flowers unfold;

Where suns arise in joyous skies,

And fill the soul within their eyes.

For them the immortal bards have sung,

For them old age itself is young.

The Studio. 1887.