Poem by Maria Jane Jewsbury

Youth in Age

   Why should a tear be in an old man's eye?
                                  Wordsworth.

I pass
Pleasantly on: the road leads to the skies,
And mine's a summer's journey.
Barry Cornwall.

MY hair is grey, and grey with years
That bore their weight of hopes and fears;
My sight grows dim, and blank the page
To them alike of bard or sage,
Friends greet me, but I scarce can see
The eyes that once were stars to me.
Ev'n the sweet tones of voices dear
Fall coldly on my languid ear:

Viands are tasteless, odours rare
Pass by me like the common air;
And strains that once my soul could bow,
Are music but to memory now.
Yes, Time, with unreproved claim,
Asserts his title to my frame;
And yet with failing pulse and limb,
I look on and I laugh at him;
He cannot touch my kingly part,
Nor dry youth's fountain in my heart.
Call not my life a leaden sleep,
O'er which no dream hath power to sweep;
My spirits may have ceased their dance,
And Thought a laggard grown, perchance;
Wit may provoke no repartee,
And Reasoning, learned toil may be,
Imagination fold her wings,
Or dip them but in memory's springs,

Yet hath my heart a golden haze
Reflected from departed days;
Remembrances in glowing crowds
Hang round it, like rich sunset clouds.
If my life's fever-hour is past,
Does love with tumult only last?
Ah no! Affection's sweetest balm
Is peaceful truth is chastened calm.
If I esteem it vain and wild
To be by youthful hopes beguiled,
Celestial ones I yet can find,
Undying as the immortal mind;
And joy's rich fruitage gather thence,
When not a blossom grows for sense.

1. The Bitterness of Death Past
2. Now Mine Eyes Seeth Thee
3. The Altered Heart
4. The Oceanides. No. 9. The Eden of the Sea
5. Where Dwelleth Yesterday?

George Meredith Youth in Age ("Once I was part of the music I heard")

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