“Rabbi ben Ezra” — Robert Browning

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand who saith ‘A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!’
Not that, amassing flowers, Youth sighed for sunny hours;
For hopes, for schemes, I never lacked a part;
But in my heart of hearts I feel His finger marks the dates and arcs,
And gives each year its end, each life its start.
All service ranks the same with God: if now,
As formerly, I stoop to seed and reap,
I learn that, sowing wide, His harvest will endow
The world with good, and yet my soul may keep.
Youth’s feet may stumble, yet the higher mind
Keeps climbing toward a light no age can dim;
And duty, purpose, steadfast effort intertwined,
Show me the meaning clear, and place for Him.
Time’s wind may strip my vigor, yet the soul
Finds growth in acts of thought, of work, of love;
And in that faithful tending of the whole,
I walk the path preordained by God above.