Christmas Song Of The Old Children

Well for youth to seek the strong,             Beautiful, and brave!         We, the old, who walk along             Gently to the grave,         Only pay our court to thee,         Child of all Eternity!         We are old who once were young,             And we grow more old;         Songs we are that have been sung,             Tales that have been told;         Yellow leaves, wind-blown to thee,         Childhood of Eternity!         If we come too sudden near,             Lo, Earth's infant cries,         For our faces wan and drear             Have such withered eyes!         Thou, Heaven's child, turn'st not away         From the wrinkled ones who pray!         Smile upon us with thy mouth             And thine eyes of grace;         On our cold north breathe thy south.             Thaw the frozen face:         Childhood all from thee doth flow--         Melt to song our age's snow.         Gray-haired children come in crowds,             Thee, their Hope, to greet:         Is it swaddling clothes or shrouds             Hampering so our feet?         Eldest child, the shadows gloom:         Take the aged children home.         We have had enough of play,             And the wood grows drear;         Many who at break of day             Companied us here--         They have vanished out of sight,         Gone and met the coming light!         Fair is this out-world of thine,             But its nights are cold;         And the sun that makes it fine             Makes us soon so old!         Long its shadows grow and dim--         Father, take us back with him!     1891.