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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Margaret Widdemer

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Youth-song

Margaret Widdemer

I WISH I were old now,

And maybe content:

I’d look back the long way

My footsteps were bent,

And say, “’Tis all done now—

What odds how it went?”

For all would look smooth then

And most would look gay;

And “Oh, I was sure then

And strong then,” I’d say,

And show the wild young things

My wise-travelled way.

I’d have naught to strive for

And no thoughts to form,

But how to rest easy

And how to sleep warm,

And “Pity the poor souls

Abroad in the storm!”

I wish I were old now

With living put by,

And peace on the hearthstone

And peace in the sky.

But “Oh, to be young now,

But young now!” they cry!