It is time to be old, <br />To take in sail:-- <br />The god of bounds, <br />Who sets to seas a shore, <br />Come to me in his fatal rounds, <br />And said: "No more! <br />No farther shoot <br />Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root. <br />Fancy departs; no more invent; <br />Contract thy firmament <br />To compass of a tent. <br />There's not enough for this and that, <br />Make thy option which of two; <br />Economize the failing river, <br />Not the less revere the Giver, <br />Leave the many and hold the few. <br />Timely wise accept the terms, <br />Soften the fall with wary foot; <br />A little while <br />Still plan and smile, <br />And,--fault of novel germs,-- <br />Mature the unfallen fruit. <br />Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires, <br />Bad husbands of their fires, <br />Who, when they gave thee breath, <br />Failed to bequeath <br />The needful sinew stark as once. <br />The baresark marrow to thy bones, <br />But left a legacy of ebbing veins, <br />Inconstant heat and nerveless reins,-- <br />Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb, <br />Amid the gladiators, halt and numb." <br /> <br />As the bird trims her to the gale, <br />I trim myself to the storm of time, <br />I man the rudder, reef the sail, <br />Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime: <br />"Lowly faithful, banish fear, <br />Right onward drive unharmed; <br />The port, well worth the cruise, is near, <br />And every wave is charmed."<br /><br />Ralph Waldo Emerson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/terminus/
