Classic Poem

O friend of my later youth,
You taught me the way to ease
My heart of its burden of truth
When I was bowed to the knees
With a weight that was joy untold,
And misery too, for I knew
Not how my joy to unfold
Till I found out the way through you:
A highway of gold.

It may be the years will bring
Me friends and hearteners too,
Their praise perchance I shall sing
In words befitting you;
But darkness must burgeon with light
And sunshine with darkness compare,
Ere I fail to remember your might,
Or look for a bounty as rare
As you shed from your height.