Classic Poem

Hope dies in many a heart, as life grows older:
No more with young bright dazzled eyes we see
A thousand diamonds on each wave's white shoulder,
A thousand emeralds in each sun-kissed tree.

No more the road to heaven seems all placarded
From starlit side to side: “Admission free.”
Love, seeking woman's heart, is checked, retarded;
Winged love must pause, and pay his entrance fee.

A poor man toils to win a girl's devotion:
Some rich man wins her in a night, maybe!
Man's thoughts are rocks that breast time's tossing ocean,
But woman's thoughts are changeful as the sea.