WHEN I am young again I'll hoard my bliss, <br />Nor deem that inexhaustible it is, <br />Remembering old age comes after this, <br />Joy grows to pain; <br />Nor waste one moment of youth's rose-sweet hours, <br />Nor trample one of all its countless flowers, <br />But drink the summer sun and soft spring showers, <br />When I am young again. <br /> <br /> <br />I will be wise with wisdom dearly won <br />By those who through life's wood have nearly run; <br />Learn what to do, and what to leave undone, <br />Risk or refrain. <br />I will not seek into my mouth to take <br />The bitter apple of the acrid lake, <br />But at clear fountains all my thirsts will slake, <br />When I am young again. <br /> <br /> <br />I will not brush the bloom to reach the core, <br />Remembering how it chanced with me before, <br />And bloom once lost returns not any more, <br />Hard cores remain: <br />I will fence round with prudence and secure <br />A lasting bloom whose freshness shall endure; <br />Oh, I will guard my peach of youth, be sure, <br />When I am young again. <br /> <br /> <br />When I am young again, I'll spend no breath <br />On bitter words the heart remembereth <br />When bitterness is swallowed up by Death <br />Holding sole reign; <br />I'll love so well that if they pass to sleep <br />Before me, I shall have no watch to keep <br />Over their tears-only my tears to weep <br />When I am young again. <br /> <br /> <br />I will not lightly joy nor idly grieve, <br />Nor for a heaven itself one soul deceive, <br />Nor will I be deceived, vainly believe, <br />Nor love in vain. <br />Come back, lost youth! Ah, Fate, that one gift give! <br />Then I will show that I have learned to live; <br />Youth shall be wise--and two and two make five-- <br />When I am young again!<br /><br />Edith Nesbit<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-141/
