Classic Poem

Nature repeats her lessons; day and night,
With the same solemn words, to all return;
To all the morning comes with cheering light,
And over all the stars of evening burn.
The seasons, to their coming ever true,
Repeat the lesson of the varied year;
The early flower, the fading leaf we view,
But their oft-spoken words we fail to hear.
For thoughts of pleasure, or of sordid gain,
Possess the heart and cloud the seeing eyes;
Nature in youth and manhood speaks in vain,
For trifles light her wisdom we despise;
And e'en in age at last, when wiser grown,
But half her meaning to our minds is known.