TWO PORTRAITS. <br /> <br />A PLEASANT picture, full of meanings deep, <br />Old age, calm sitting in the July sun, <br />On withered hands half-leaning--feeble hands, <br />That after their life-labors, light or hard, <br />Their girlish broideries, their marriage-ringed <br />Domestic duties, their sweet cradle cares, <br />Have dropped into the quiet-folded ease <br />Of fourscore years. How peacefully the eyes <br />Face us! Contented, unregretful eyes, <br />That carry in them the whole tale of life <br />With its one moral--'Thus all was--thus best.' <br />Eyes now so near unto their closing mild <br />They seem to pierce direct through all that maze, <br />As eyes immortal do. <br /> <br />Here--Youth. She stands <br />Under the roses, with elastic foot <br />Poised to step forward; eager-eyed, yet grave <br />Beneath the mystery of the unknown To-come, <br />Though longing for its coming. Firm prepared <br />(So say the lifted head and close, sweet mouth) <br />For any future: though the dreamy hope <br />Throned on her girlish forehead, whispers fond, <br />'Surely they err who say that life is hard; <br />Surely it shall not be with me as these.' <br /> <br />God knows: He only. And so best, dear child, <br />Thou woman-statured, sixteen-year-old child, <br />Meet bravely the impenetrable Dark <br />Under thy roses. Bud and blossom thou <br />Fearless as they--if thou art planted safe, <br />Whether for gathering or for withering, safe <br />In the King's garden.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-garden-chair/
