Idly as thou, in that old day
Thou mournest, did thy sire repine;
So, in his time, thy child grown gray
Shall sigh for thine.
But life shall on and upward go;
Th' eternal step of Progress beats
To that great anthem, calm and slow,
Which God repeats.
Take heart! The Waster builds again;
A charmed life old Goodness hath;
The tares may perish, but the grain
Is not for death.
--John Greenleaf Whittier.