Classic Poem

Narcissus youth has looked at life and seen
In the strange mirror only his own stare, —
His own unanswering gaze whose circled green
Contains two tiny pictures of the scene
Where youth sits dumb, only of himself aware.

Prophetic age will bid the glass good-bye
And read his microscopic tales of being
In every face but that which answers " I",
Earning achievement from the art of seeing.
In every face he fathoms, age will throne
The intensely sphered reflection of his own
Life-labour toward unsealed intelligence.
For life sits faithful in old eyes, alone
With mortal frailty and magnificence.