Classic Poem

SOME BIRTHDAY LINES TO J. R. T.

Far within the orient azure,
 In the purple and the dew,
Lies the flowery land of pleasure
 Which your early childhood knew.

In its dim and blue existence
 There it lies, a dewy space,
In the bright forbidden distance
 Memory only can retrace.

After this the fancy wanders
 Over varied field and hill,
Where the swelling stream meanders
 And forgets it was a rill.

Many a flower with odours baneful
 Blooms enticingly thereby,
To whose influence, subtle, painful,
 Later years shall testify.

In Youth's lovely, dangerous valley,
 E'en the best directed feet
Oft may turn to stray and dally
 Mid the bowers that chill and cheat.

But anon the flowers grow scanter
 And to rougher pastures yield,
Where the ploughman and the planter
 Must prepare the harvest-field.

On that boundary you are standing,
 'Twixt the blossoms and the clods,
To begin on this stern landing
 The great strife 'gainst fearful odds.

Where you strolled the sunny meadows,
 You must brave the rocks and storms;
Where you took alarm at shadows,
 You must combat solid forms.

Hills of snow and valleys torrid
 Lie beyond the boundary vast,
Where fond Life with anxious forehead
 Reads the future from the past.

Huge and rough as thunder-smitten,
 Rise the barriers of the gate,
With one sentence overwritten,—
 Simple letters full of fate.

On the arch through which you're speeding
 There those two forbidding, words
Still shall flame, as over Eden
 Blazed the red exiling swords.

A lost realm recovered never—
 With receding speed increased,
Barred and branded there forever
 It shall glimmer in the east.

Youth is gone—a vanished glory—
 And, with stern and earnest view,
Manhood needs take up the story,
 And with valour bear it through.

All the world lies wide before you,
 Where to choose the wrong or right;
And no future shall restore you
 What you seize not now with might.

Let each act be the sure token
 Of the nobler life ahead:—
Let each thought in truth be spoken,
 Though the utterance strike you dead.

Spurn the small enticing by-way
 Where Temptation sits apart:
Boldly tread the open highway
 Leading to the golden mart.

Though the world smile on you blandly,
 Let your friends be choice and few:
Choose your course, pursue it grandly,
 And achieve what you pursue!