Classic Poem

HUSBAND AND WIFE

HUSBAND

As golden chains behung their tree
And swung, in breezes, to and fro,
There you, below the humming bee,
Were sitting in the shade to sew.

WIFE

Ah! sew in white, with no black dyes
Of mourning, under weeping eyes.

HUSBAND

With eyes that show'd a glist'ning blue
As clear as succory blossoms bear,
Or as your girdle, shining new,
Or knot new-made for breast or hair.

WIFE

Aye, hair, all glossy black, that all
Now withers grey in life's late fall.

HUSBAND

Yet fall, with charms we all can feel,
Awaits the ripening time and sun,
For gifts, enhancing all our weal,
In growth of fruits by spring begun.

WIFE

Begun, as once with us begun
Our life that now is far outrun.

HUSBAND

Outrun to reach a happy stage,
To which our riper mind has brought
A treasure for our wiser age,
The wisdom cull'd from time by thought.