Classic Poem

I HAVE looked my last on joyous youth; days of the white dreams gone,
But I purpose to walk the rest of the way with never a longing thought;
Courage is not of an age nor a time — ever it struggles on,
Growing in strength and building true on all that the past has wrought,
Then Courage shall go the way with me —
An heritage — and my legacy!

I have striven, in vain, for the greater things; for goals that my youth desired,
Hotly following will-o'-the-wisps, born of Fire of Hope;
But now, in the cool of the quieter day, what if the soul be tired?
Courage will help defeat the ills with which I have yet to cope.
Stripped of my youth, I still may find
Help in the years I have left behind.

Leaving the course to the swift and sure, through by-ways I will fare,
Hearing at times the joyous call of the runners upon their way,
Learning, though late, to know the flowers, learning at last to care
For the birds that sing, and the stars at night — the sun-filled, wind-swept day!
Learning that Youth may leave in its place
A Courage that bears a smiling face.