George Washington Hayes 1849-1944

ClX)HCE WASHINGTON HAYES 1849-1944 Let the old men go quietly, unmourning, the children walking decently ¡it their side. Grey marbles bend above them in the evening and poplars strain upward in the morning. The sun that gilds those silvers in the dawn stretching its rays to touch the evening branches. Let them sit down on their familiar benches resting their arms to soak the rising sun. It lights their eastward faces, and their bone feels warmth run like elixir up and down. Let the old men sit so with day before them, night falling back behind them and their children. The world lights up, and all the evening's wisdom they shall recall, and give it to their children. We are not so yoting, yet the old men are children. Or, we are ancient, and our babies old. Yesterday for the fathers, today for us— See the sun hasten!— Tomorrow for our sons and for our daughters. But let us, old men, live through night to morning; let us depart at dawn, sharing the day; remembering, til they are old enough to understand what we shall say. Only by speech we keep the line unbroken, and if our knowledge is inarticulate. We shall clasp in their hands a sea-shell for a token. Death is not tragic. It is to be forgotten; or what we knew, forgotten; or to have lost all that was heritage, and all acquired by our own working. So an empire falls and Goths stand ignorant by crumbling arches. The letters vanish. It is all to do again. So let old men be wary of their dying. It does not matter when, but with what done. They must speak to their dark children after the ni they must go out with dignity before them. Let them die quietly, and face the" sun. Kiffin Rockwell 41 ...