Classic Poem

The days rebuked me, saying: " Honor and praise,
Wisdom and high endeavor, fame and peace
Are in our keeping as the dawns increase;
Not fame alone, but fame's immortal bays
We hold, and all thy youth's great strength, which slays
Fear and her cohorts when they seek release.
What hast thou done to gain even one of these,
O young, wild heart? " Thus spake the patient days.

I heard their voices in the dusk and dawn;
I listened, and my soul, a coward, wept,
Then put Youth's mighty armor bravely on,
And from the Camps of Quiet proudly swept.
I fought with Life, I knew the pain that sears ...
The days rebuked me — days that soon are years!