The Guest

Time runs so swiftly when the heart is glad, Let me be sometimes sad, Lest the all-happy noon Flash into eve and fade, and I grow old too soon.

Let me be sometimes sad that life may gain Sweetness from sorrow’s rain, Nor bask till day be done, A scentless blossom, shrivelling in a cloudless sun.

For broken hearts to riper wisdom wake Than hearts that never break, And from their anguish flows The joy that tearless laughter seeks but never knows.

Since sorrows are life’s winters, in our primes If we be sad sometimes, At last, one winter more, Age comes but as a guest that stayed with us before.

The heart renews its youth when griefs are past, And age so comes, at last, Like some remembered pain That shall but come and go, and leave us young again.