I'M GROWING OLD.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 1, Issue 26, 20 March 1858, Page 4

I'M GROWING OLD.

BY JOHN 0. SAKE. Hy days pass gently away, My nights are blessed with sweetest sleep; 1 feel no symptoms of decay, 1 have no cause to mourn or weep ; My foes are impotent and shy, My friends are neither false nor cold ; And yet, of late, I often sigh, I m growing old. My growing talk of olden times, My growing thirst for early news, My growing apathy to rhyme*. My growing love to easy shoes : My growing hate of crowds and noise, ily growing fear of taking cold : All tell me, in the plain st voice. Im growing old! I'm growing fonder of my staff, I'm growing dimmer in my eyes, I'm growing lainier in my laugh, I m growing deeper in my sighs : I'm growing careless in my dress, I m growing frugal of niy gold, I in growing wise, I no growing— yes— . I'm growing old ! I see it in ray changing taste, I see it in my changing hair, I see it in my growing waist, I see it in my growing heir; A thousand hints proclaim the trath, As plain as truth was ever told, That, even in my vaunted youth, I'm groningold? Ah me ! my very laurels breathe The tale in mv reluctant ears : . And every boon the hours bequeath, But makes me debtor to the years ? E'en flattery's honeyed words declare The secret she would fain withhold, And tells me in 'How young y.«u are ? ' I'm growing old. Thanks for the years, whose rapid flight My sombre muse too gladly sin«s : Thanks for the beams of golden light That tint the darkness of their wings, The light that beams from out the sky, Those heavenly mansions to unfold, Where all are blest and none m«y sigh, " I'm growiug old "