Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/To a Friend on the Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of her Marriage

by Lydia Sigourney

TO A FRIEND, ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF HER MARRIAGE.

 
YOU say, that life to you has been
    A mix'd and chequer'd dream,
That hours, and days, and years have flown,
    As rapid as a stream.

You tell me that your youthful prime
    Like morning shadows past,
That every year of fleeting time
    Grew shorter till the last.

You tell me that those days of dread,
    That fill the heart with pain,
Will be remember'd like the shade,
    That ne'er returns again.

But if a more extended space,
    Than I on earth have known,
Should leave so light, so faint a trace
    As scarcely to be shown;

Oh, what is life? Let wisdom meek
    Return the slow reply,
Say, what is life? To move, to speak,
    To look around—and die.

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