The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

---

[316] We have grown old together; we have seen,
     Our youth and age between,
Two generations leave us, and to-day
     We with the third hold way,

Loving and loved. If thought must backward run
     To those who, one by one,
In the great silence and the dark beyond
     Vanished with farewells fond,

Unseen, not lost; our grateful memories still
     Their vacant places fill,
And with the full-voiced greeting of new friends
     A tenderer whisper blends.

Linked close in a pathetic brotherhood
     Of mingled ill and good,
Of joy and grief, of grandeur and of shame,
     For pity more than blame,—

The gift is thine the weary world to make
     More cheerful for thy sake,
Soothing the ears its Miserere pains,
     With the old Hellenic strains,

Lighting the sullen face of discontent
     With smiles for blessings sent.
Enough of selfish wailing has been had,
     Thank God! for notes more glad.

Life is indeed no holiday; therein
     Are want, and woe, and sin,
Death and its nameless fears, and over all
     Our pitying tears must fall.