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Three poems for the New Year

Mild is the Parting Year, To Youth, The Appeal

Mild Is the Parting Year

  • Mild is the parting year, and sweet 
  • The odour of the falling spray; 
  • Life passes on more rudely fleet, 
  • And balmless is its closing day. 
  • I wait its close, I court its gloom, 
  • But mourn that never must there fall 
  • Or on my breast or on my tomb 
  • The tear that would have soothed it all.

To Youth

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  • Where art thou gone, light-ankled Youth?
  • With wing at either shoulder,
  • And smile that never left thy mouth
  • Until the Hours grew colder:
  • Then somewhat seem’d to whisper near 
  • That thou and I must part;
  • I doubted it; I felt no fear,
  • No weight upon the heart.
  • If aught befell it, Love was by
  • And roll’d it off again; 
  • So, if there ever was a sigh,
  • ’T was not a sigh of pain.
  • I may not call thee back; but thou
  • Returnest when the hand
  • Of gentle Sleep waves o’er my brow 
  • His poppy-crested wand;
  • Then smiling eyes bend over mine,
  • Then lips once press’d invite;
  • But sleep hath given a silent sign,
  • And both, alas! take flight.

The Appeal

  • Remain, ah not in youth alone,
  • Though youth, where you are, long will stay,
  • But when my summer days are gone,
  • And my autumnal haste away.
  • “Can I be always by your side?” 
  • No; but the hours you can, you must,
  • Nor rise at Death’s approaching stride,
  • Nor go when dust is gone to dust.
Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) was an English poet who is best known for his poem “Rose Aylmer” and his collection of prose pieces Imaginary Conversations, which depicts discussions by historical contemporaries, mostly from ancient Greece and Rome. Both critically and publicly acclaimed for his poetry, Landor published verse in both English and Latin, leading Charles Swineburne to remark that “he could not write a note of three lines which did not bear the mark of his Roman hand in its matchless and inimitable command of a style at once the most powerful and the purest of his age.”

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Mild Is the Parting Year

  • Mild is the parting year, and sweet 
  • The odour of the falling spray; 
  • Life passes on more rudely fleet, 
  • And balmless is its closing day. 
  • I wait its close, I court its gloom, 
  • But mourn that never must there fall 
  • Or on my breast or on my tomb 
  • The tear that would have soothed it all.

To Youth

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  • Where art thou gone, light-ankled Youth?
  • With wing at either shoulder,
  • And smile that never left thy mouth
  • Until the Hours grew colder:
  • Then somewhat seem’d to whisper near 
  • That thou and I must part;
  • I doubted it; I felt no fear,
  • No weight upon the heart.
  • If aught befell it, Love was by
  • And roll’d it off again; 
  • So, if there ever was a sigh,
  • ’T was not a sigh of pain.
  • I may not call thee back; but thou
  • Returnest when the hand
  • Of gentle Sleep waves o’er my brow 
  • His poppy-crested wand;
  • Then smiling eyes bend over mine,
  • Then lips once press’d invite;
  • But sleep hath given a silent sign,
  • And both, alas! take flight.

The Appeal

  • Remain, ah not in youth alone,
  • Though youth, where you are, long will stay,
  • But when my summer days are gone,
  • And my autumnal haste away.
  • “Can I be always by your side?” 
  • No; but the hours you can, you must,
  • Nor rise at Death’s approaching stride,
  • Nor go when dust is gone to dust.
Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) was an English poet who is best known for his poem “Rose Aylmer” and his collection of prose pieces Imaginary Conversations, which depicts discussions by historical contemporaries, mostly from ancient Greece and Rome. Both critically and publicly acclaimed for his poetry, Landor published verse in both English and Latin, leading Charles Swineburne to remark that “he could not write a note of three lines which did not bear the mark of his Roman hand in its matchless and inimitable command of a style at once the most powerful and the purest of his age.”

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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