566. Remain!

Walter Savage Landor. 1775-1864


REMAIN, ah not in youth alone!
  --Tho' youth, where you are, long will stay--
But when my summer days are gone,
  And my autumnal haste away.
'Can I be always by your side?'
  No; but the hours you can, you must,
Nor rise at Death's approaching stride,
  Nor go when dust is gone to dust.

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition