Growing Young

Our Bible says I'm forty -eight,
But sure as I'm alive
I'm growing young; so I'll assert
I'm only forty-five.

For what is youth but love and joy,
And hope that looks before?
Yes, I am growing young;--indeed
I'm only forty-four.

At fifty I expect to be
But forty, less or more;
At sixty, thirty. Every year
I'll write the figure lower.

I cannot say just how 'twill end.
In second childhood? What?
The logic's clear enough, but then,
I think I'd rather not.

Too far ahead I I'll not surmise
How it must end, at last.
Enough that now at forty-eight
I'm growing young quite fast.

Quillings In Verse
John Edward Everett
(Smith Center: ^___. 1912)
Page 104