Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Apotheosis of Faded Youth

THE fount the Spaniard sought in vain
Through all the land of flowers
Leaps glittering from the sandy plain
Our classic grove embowers;
Here youth, unchanging, blooms and smiles,
Here dwells eternal spring,
And warm from Hope's elysian isles
The winds their perfume bring.

Here every leaf is in the bud,
Each singing throat in tune,
And bright o'er evening's silver flood
Shines the young crescent moon.
What wonder Age forgets his staff
And lays his glasses down,
And gray-haired grandsires look and laugh
As when their locks were brown!

With ears grown dull and eyes grown dim
They greet the joyous day
That calls them to the fountain's brim
To wash their years away.
What change has clothed the ancient sire
In sudden youth? For, to!
The Judge, the Doctor, and the Squire
Are Jack and Bill and Joe!

And be his titles what they will,
In spite of manhood's claim
The graybeard is a school-boy still
And loves his school-boy name;
It calms the ruler's stormy breast
Whom hurrying care pursues,
And brings a sense of peace and rest,
Like slippers after shoes.--

And what are all the prizes won
To youth's enchanted view?
And what is all the man has done
To what the boy may do?
O blessed fount, whose waters flow
Alike for sire and son,
That melts our winter's frost and snow
And makes all ages one!

I pledge the sparkling fountain's tide,
That flings its golden shower
With age to fill and youth to guide,
Still fresh in morning flower
Flow on with ever-widening stream,
In ever-brightening morn,--
Our story's pride, our future's dream,
The hope of times unborn!

--Oliver Wendell Holmes (1873)

22 comments:

  1. Another birthday approaching. ;-)

    This is my favorite moment:


    And be his titles what they will,
    In spite of manhood's claim
    The graybeard is a school-boy still
    And loves his school-boy name;
    It calms the ruler's stormy breast
    Whom hurrying care pursues,
    And brings a sense of peace and rest,
    Like slippers after shoes.--


    I hope you have a peaceful and love-filled birthday.

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  2. Last Friday. That was very perceptive of you. ;)

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  3. ...and thanks for the birthday wishes. :)

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  4. Did you do anything memorable to celebrate the day?

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  5. Does getting out of bed, count? ;)

    No... I had celebrated the previous week when my younger son had come down for the President's Day weekend. We all went to the theatre and saw a production of "Shooting Star". His former acting teacher at the Baltimore School for the Arts was directing the performance. Afterwards, I got to have my favorite "Bangers and Mash" at a local resaurant. So ya, some future-fond memories got generated.

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  6. Does getting out of bed, count? ;)

    Sure that counts, unless you WANTED to stay in bed all day, which is what I might do for my next birthday. ;-)

    It sounds like you had a good time with your family. Nothing beats theater and a dinner out!

    bangers and mash....MMMMM!!! (with a good Irish beer! ;-)

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  7. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to drink anymore....:(

    ...but you are welcome to have as many Guinness as you care to. :)

    I "got" acute Pancreitis after my niece's engagement party a few years back (when I drank 3 whole beers).

    ...and the author of the article is mistaken when he says, "Isolated alcoholic binges rarely, if ever, cause pancreatitis." I was not an alcoholic... but my mother died (at age 48) of pancreatic cancer... and I have a large cyst that may one day require surgery. So, IMO, his "etiology" is "whack."

    Just sayin'... ;)

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  8. OUCH! You are definitely wise to avoid drinking.

    Two is my limit (and that's too many).

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  9. Blogger seems to have it in for Thersites. I wonder what he did wrong...

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  10. Thersites needs a good whooping every now and then.
    lol!

    He's cantankerous. But he's nowhere near as bad as your other friends.

    by the way, I laugh every time I read "Misty Water-Coloured Mammaries".

    Thanks. ;-)

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  11. Memories of mammaries are an infant's first and best investment in human survival... the source of food and drink. Surely the "seat" of desire.

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  12. Perhaps you spoke ill of Thersites too soon, for the Blogger gods have granted fair Theristes both a stay of execution and reprieve, as both he and his blog are back... ;)

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  13. I didn't know you had left the scene.

    Did you clear out your aviary yet?

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  14. Nope. I just changed the papers at the bottom of the cage... ;)

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  15. Hey....if it's for health reasons, who can argue?

    Do I get similar benefits from ogling Javier Bardem?

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  16. Do I get similar benefits from ogling Javier Bardem?

    Perhaps you should do a study. But I doubt it. Javier never "breast fed" you. ;)

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  17. I'll sign up for that study.
    :P

    It's not Javier, per se, it's what he represents to me. And in a way, "he" does feed me...in my breast.

    ---

    Interesting (and good) that although I was bfed, I don't have the same fascination with breasts that men do. Our Maker is wise (obviously).

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  18. It must be some other instinctual form of sympathetic hunger...

    ...said the lion to the lamb. ;)

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