Alice Corbin

From “Old Songs for New”

THERE is a country full of wine

And liquor of the sun,

Where sap is running all the year,

And spring is never done,

Where all is good as it is fair,

And love and will are one.

Old age may never come there,

But ever in to-day

The people talk as in a dream

And laugh slow time away.

But would you stay as now you are,

Or as a year ago?

Oh, not as then, for then how small

The wisdom we did owe!

Or if forever as to-day,

How little we could know!

Then welcome age, and fear not sorrow;

To-day’s no better than to-morrow,

Or yesterday that flies.

By the low light in your eyes,

By the love that in me lies,

I know we grow more lovely

Growing wise.