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Oliver Wendell Holmes - The Fountain Of YouthOliver Wendell Holmes - The Fountain Of Youth
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READ AT THE MEETING OF THE HARVARD ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, JUNE 25, 1873 THE fount the Spaniard sought in vain Through all the land of flowers Leaps glittering from the sandy plain Our classic grove embowers; Here youth, unchanging, blooms and smiles, Here dwells eternal spring, And warm from Hope`s elysian isles The winds their perfume bring. Here every leaf is in the bud, Each singing throat in tune, And bright o`er evening`s silver flood Shines the young crescent moon. What wonder Age forgets his staff And lays his glasses down, And gray-haired grandsires look and laugh As when their locks were brown! With ears grown dull and eyes grown dim They greet the joyous day That calls them to the fountain`s brim To wash their years away. What change has clothed the ancient sire In sudden youth? For, to! The Judge, the Doctor, and the Squire Are Jack and Bill and Joe! And be his titles what they will, In spite of manhood`s claim The graybeard is a school-boy still And loves his school-boy name; It calms the ruler`s stormy breast Whom hurrying care pursues, And brings a sense of peace and rest, Like slippers after shoes.-- And what are all the prizes won To youth`s enchanted view? And what is all the man has done To what the boy may do? O blessed fount, whose waters flow Alike for sire and son, That melts our winter`s frost and snow And makes all ages one! I pledge the sparkling fountain`s tide, That flings its golden shower With age to fill and youth to guide, Still fresh in morning flower Flow on with ever-widening stream, In ever-brightening morn,-- Our story`s pride, our future`s dream, The hope of times unborn!
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