Classic Poem

What if some day upon your door
A hand should knock as to implore

Your swift attention, and you rose
With smiling lips, as one who knows

A friend has come; when lo! a face
You ne'er had seen in any place

Should look at you, a hand lift up
Before your eyes a crystal cup

Which held the draught by poets sung,
The water that should make you young;

Make answer, you who moan and weep,
And babble in your troubled sleep,

Would you not whisper, No! No! No!
And ask your wondrous guest to go?

What if some day upon your door
A hand should knock as to implore

Your swift attention, and you rose
With smiling lips, as one who knows

A friend has come; when lo! a face
You ne'er had seen in any place

Should look at you, a hand lift up
Before your eyes a crystal cup

Which held the draught by poets sung,
The water that should make you young;

Make answer, you who moan and weep,
And babble in your troubled sleep,

Would you not whisper, No! No! No!
And ask your wondrous guest to go?