Classic Poem

WHEREIN HOPE WILL OUTLAST LIFE

Love bringing back to mind that princely thought
Which is the old familiar of our lives,
Comforts me well, saying our prospect thrives
As never before, nearer and nearer brought
To heaven. I, who have seen his whispers fraught
With double meanings where half-truth still strives
With deadly untruth, hang between two hives
Suspended, Yea and Nay at quarrel caught.
Meantime the years move on, and I behold
Mirrored in my true glass the traitor Time
Whose threats her promise and my hope enfold:
Ah well, so be it: Age commits his crime
Not on me only; nor will Love grow old:
But O the short years and the long, long climb!