poem on issues related to youth
Answers
John Milton, ‘How Soon Hath Time’.
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th …
Milton (1608-74) was, by all accounts, a beautiful young man; and although at age 23 he felt his first flush of youth was already in the past, he continued to look angelically youthful. The fact that he wrote this sonnet at such a young age is a testament to his precocity as a poet.
Tis death! and peace, indeed, is here,
And ease from shame, and rest from fear.
There’s nothing can dismarble now
The smoothness of that limpid brow.
But is a calm like this, in truth,
The crowning end of life and youth,
And when this boon rewards the dead,
Are all debts paid, has all been said?
Here we find the Victorian poet reflecting on death, but in doing so, his thoughts take him back to his youth. Why do young people find themselves longing for the grave?