A Second Childhood

When all my days are ending

And I have no song to sing,

I think I shall not be too old

To stare at everything;

As I stared once at a nursery door

Or a tall tree and a swing.

Wherein God’s ponderous mercy hangs

On all my sins and me,

Because He does not take away

The terror from the tree

And stones still shine along the road

That are and cannot be.

Men grow too old for love, my love,

Men grow too old for wine,

But I shall not grow too old to see

Unearthly daylight shine

Changing my chamber’s dust to snow

Till I doubt if it be mine.

Behold, the crowning mercies melt,

The first surprises stay;

And in my dross is dropped a gift

For which I dare not pray

That a man grow used to grief and joy

But not to night and day.

Men grow too old for love, my love,

Men grow too old for lies;

But I shall not grow too old to see

Enormous night arise

A cloud that is larger than the world

And a monster made of eyes.

Nor am I worthy to unloose

The latchet of my shoe

Or shake the dust form off my feet

Or the staff that bears me through

On ground that is too good to last

Too solid to be true.

Men grow too old to woo, my love,

Men grow too old to wed;

But I shall not grow to old to see

Hung crazily overhead

Incredible rafters when I wake

And find I am not dead.

A thrill of thunder in my hair

Though blackening clouds be plain,

Still I am stung and startled

By the first drop of the rain;

Romance and pride and passion pass

And these are what remain.

Strange crawling carpets of the grass,

Wide windows of the sky

Soon in this perilous grace of God

With all my sins go I,

And things grow new though I grow old

Though I grow old and die.

~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton