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"New poems / by Madison Cawein [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAH7936.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 12, 2024.
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A PRAYER FOR OLD AGE
I
THESE are the things which I would ask of Time:When I am old,Never to feel in soul doubt's spiritual rime;The heart grow coldWith self; but in me that which warms my time.
II
Never to feel the drouth, the dearth that kills,Before one dies,Of mind, full-flowering on thought's fertile hills;But, in my skies,The falcon, Fancy, that no season kills.
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III
Never to see the shadow at my door,Nor fear its fall; But wait serenely, whether rich or poor,Nor care at all,So Love sits with me at my open door.
IV
Never to have a dream I dreamed destroyed:And towards the lastLive o'er again all that I have enjoyed, —The happy Past, —Through these, the dreams, no time has yet destroyed.
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V
Never to lose my love for lowly things;To feel the needFor simple beauty still: each bird that sings,Each flower and weedThat looks its message of unguessed-at things.
VI
Never to lose my faith in Nature, God: But still to findWorship in trees; religion in each sod; And in the windSermons that breathe the universal God.
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VII
Never to age in mind; much less in heart;But keep them youngWith song, glad song, that still shall have its part, —Sung or unsung,—Within the inmost temple of my heart.
VIII
That I may lose not all my trust in men!And, through it, growNearer to Heaven and God: and softly thenMeet Death and knowHe has no terrors for my soul. Amen.
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