ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY <br /> <br />1887 <br /> <br />FRIEND, whom thy fourscore winters leave more dear <br />Than when life's roseate summer on thy cheek <br />Burned in the flush of manhood's manliest year, <br />Lonely, how lonely! is the snowy peak <br />Thy feet have reached, and mine have climbed so near! <br />Close on thy footsteps 'mid the landscape drear <br />I stretch my hand thine answering grasp to seek, <br />Warm with the love no rippling rhymes can speak! <br />Look backward! From thy lofty height survey <br />Thy years of toil, of peaceful victories won, <br />Of dreams made real, largest hopes outrun! <br />Look forward! Brighter than earth's morning ray <br />Streams the pure light of Heaven's unsetting sun, <br />The unclouded dawn of life's immortal day!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-john-greenleaf-whittier/
