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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  Attributed Songs: Crabbed Age and Youth

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Attributed Songs: Crabbed Age and Youth

By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)


CRABBED age and youth

Cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance,

Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn,

Age like winter weather;

Youth like summer brave,

Age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport,

Age’s breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

Oh, my love, my love is young!

Age, I do defy thee;

O sweet shepherd! hie thee,

For methinks thou stay’st too long.