| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| An Old Man’s Song |
| | | Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947) |
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| YE are young, ye are young, | |
| I am old, I am old; | |
| And the song has been sung | |
| And the story been told. | |
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| Your locks are as brown | 5 |
| As the mavis in May, | |
| Your hearts are as warm | |
| As the sunshine to-day, | |
| But mine white and cold | |
| As the snow on the brae. | 10 |
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| And Love, like a flower, | |
| Is growing for you, | |
| Hands clasping, lips meeting, | |
| Hearts beating so true; | |
| While Fame like a star | 15 |
| In the midnight afar | |
| Is flashing for you. | |
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| For you the To-come, | |
| But for me the Gone-by, | |
| You are panting to live, | 20 |
| I am waiting to die; | |
| The meadow is empty, | |
| No flower groweth high, | |
| And naught but a socket | |
| The face of the sky. | 25 |
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| Yea, howso we dream, | |
| Or how bravely we do; | |
| The end is the same, | |
| Be we traitor or true: | |
| And after the bloom | 30 |
| And the passion is past, | |
| Death cometh at last. | |
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