Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Only Not to Be Too Early Old

Lee Wilson Dodd

ONLY not to be too early old;

Only not to feel too soon the day

Emptied of all desire, unyielding gray;

Only not to sink too weary and cold

For fireside mirth, for friendly talk, for free

Soul-kindling thought “about it and about”;

Nay, I would rather end life in a rout,

Stricken low by folly, dropping with a laugh,

Than creep thus tamely out

Trailing the tatters of my mystery

To the dull cadence of an epitaph.