Classic Poem

I saw him steal the light away
That haunted in her eye:
It went so gently none could say
More than that it was there one day
And missing by-and-by.

I watched her longer, and he stole
Her lily tincts and rose;
All her young sprightliness of soul
Next fell beneath his cold control,
And disappeared like those.

I asked: " Why do you serve her so?
Do you, for some glad day,
Hoard these her sweets — ?" He said, " O no,
They charm not me; I bid Time throw
Them carelessly away."

Said I: " We call that cruelty —
We, your poor mortal kind."
He mused. " The thought is new to me.
Forsooth, though I men's master be,
Theirs is the teaching mind!"