Page:Poems (Bryant, 1821).djvu/14



, to the common rest that crowns our days,

Called in the noon of life, the good man goes,

Or full of years, and ripe in wisdom, lays

His silver temples in their last repose;

When, o’er the buds of youth, the death-wind blows,

And blights the fairest; when our bitterest tears

Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,

We think on what they were, with many fears

Lest Goodness die with them, and leave the coming years.