Poems (Angier)/In Twenty Years

by Annie Lanman Angier

IN TWENTY YEARS.

In twenty years, ah! twenty years—
Be calm, be brave, bid back thy tears,
These cankering cares, corroding fears,
Will cease to vex in twenty years;
In twenty years, ah! twenty years,
In less, perhaps, than twenty years.

Where are the bitter grief and woe
That thine were in the long ago?
Their memory dim and vague appears,
'Twill dimmer seem in twenty years:
In twenty years, ah! twenty years,
In less, perhaps, than twenty years.

The tongue that stung with venomed word,
No more in hate or love is stirred;
And hands that once aimed poisoned dart
May powerless lie on pulseless heart,
In twenty years, ah! twenty years,
In less, perhaps, than twenty years.

Would'st learn the happiest way to live?
Thy ills forget, thy wrongs forgive;
Think on them as will one day seem
Thy whole of life—a checkered dream
In twenty years, ah! twenty years,
In less, perhaps, than twenty years.

Our Father's home hath "no more sea;"
There mansion fair is waiting thee—
Thy bark e'en now the bright shore nears,
It moored may be in twenty years:
In twenty years, ah! twenty years,
In less, perhaps, than twenty years.