Looking Back

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <p id="id01642" style="margin-top: 3em">Looking Back.</p> <p id="id01643" style="margin-top: 2em">I've been sitting reviewing the past, dear wife,<br/> From the time when a toddling child,—<br/> Through my boyish days with their joys and strife,—<br/> Through my youth with its passions wild.<br/> Through my manhood, with all its triumph and fret,<br/> To the present so tranquil and free;<br/> And the years of the past that I most regret,<br/> Are the years that I passed without thee.<br/></p> <p id="id01644">It was best we should meet as we did, dear wife,—<br/> It was best we had trouble to face;<br/> For it bound us more closely together through life,<br/> And it nerved us for running the race.<br/> We are nearing the end where the goal is set,<br/> And we fear not our destiny,<br/> And the only years that I now regret,<br/> Are the years that I passed without thee.<br/></p> <p id="id01645">'Twas thy beauty attracted my eye, dear wife,<br/> But thy goodness that kept me true;<br/> 'Twas thy sympathy soothed me when cares were rife,<br/> 'Twas thy smile gave me courage anew.<br/> Thy bloom may be faded by time, but yet,<br/> Thou hast still the same beauty to me,<br/> And no part of my past do I now regret,<br/> Save the years that I passed without thee.<br/></p> <p id="id01646">We have struggled and suffered our share, dear wife,<br/> But our joys have been many and sweet;<br/> And our trust in each other has taken from life,<br/> The heartaches and pangs others meet.<br/> I still bless the day, long ago, when we met,<br/> And my prayer for the future shall be,<br/> That when the call comes and thy life's sun has set,<br/> I may never be parted from thee.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />