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 cold     With 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. 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 last     Live o'er again all that I have enjoyed,     The happy Past,     Through these, the dreams, no time has yet destroyed. V.     Never to lose my love for lowly things;     To feel the need     For simple beauty still: each bird that sings,     Each flower and weed     That looks its message of unguessed-at things. VI.     Never to lose my faith in Nature, God:     But still to find     Worship in trees; religion in each sod;     And in the wind     Sermons that breathe the universal God. VII.     Never to age in mind; much less in heart;     But keep them young     With 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, grow     Nearer to Heaven and God: and softly then     Meet Death and know     He has no terrors for my soul. Amen.