When Age Comes On

When Age comes on!--
"The deepening dusk is where the dawn
  Once glittered splendid, and the dew
In honey-drips, from red rose-lips
  Was kissed away by me and you.--
And now across the frosty lawn
Black foot-prints trail, and Age comes on--
  And Age comes on!
  And biting wild-winds whistle through
Our tattered hopes--and Age comes on!

When Age comes on!--
O tide of raptures, long withdrawn,
  Flow back in summer-floods, and fling
Here at our feet our childhood sweet,
  And all the songs we used to sing! . . .
Old loves, old friends--all dead and gone--
Our old faith lost--and Age comes on--
  And Age comes on!
  Poor hearts! have we not anything
But longings left when Age comes on?

ENVOY.

Just as of old!  The world rolls on and on;
The day dies into night--night into dawn--
Dawn into dusk--through centuries untold.--
  Just as of old.

Time loiters not.  The river ever flows,
Its brink or white with blossoms or with snows;
Its tide or warm with Spring or Winter cold:
  Just as of old.

Lo! where is the beginning, where the end
Of living, loving, longing?  Listen, friend!--
God answers with a silence of pure gold--
  Just as of old.