Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection)/Amplius

by Clarence Hawkes

AMPLIUS

Sweet banished years of joy and youth,
 Of twenty-five this is the last;
I cannot weave its fragile woof,
 That day is done, that die is cast.

I cannot summon childhood days
 And blend them with thy coming years,
Or place its coronet of flowers
 Upon a brow that smiles through tears.

I cannot pierce those distant days
 That ne'er have seen the tide of time
And sing a prophet's wondrous lays,
 I only know a poet's rhyme.

This day God gives thee something grand,
 A life of action and of power,
A throbbing heart, a willing hand,
 A noble art, a fleeting hour.

Let every year that marks thy life
 Be filled with noble actions done,
Let every effort in the strife
 But nerve thee for a greater one.

Fight bravely onward unto death
 And thou shalt yet be known of kings,
Let every heart beat, every breath,
 But lift thee up to higher things;

Then when thou lay'st thine armor down,
 Amid the battle's dust and heat,
Thou shalt receive a golden crown,
 A scepter and a regent's seat.