Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By WalterLearned

983 To Critics

WHEN I was seventeen I heard

From each censorious tongue,

“I ’d not do that if I were you;

You see you ’re rather young.”

Now that I number forty years,

I ’m quite as often told

Of this or that I should n’t do

Because I ’m quite too old.

O carping world! If there ’s an age

Where youth and manhood keep

An equal poise, alas! I must

Have passed it in my sleep.