Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Crowns Quotations

Youth wrenches the sceptre from old age, and sets the crown on its own head before it is entitled to it.

O ye dead Poets, who are living still Immortal in your verse, though life be fled, And ye, O living Poets, who are dead Though ye are living, if neglect can kill, Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill, With drops of anguish falling fast and red From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head, Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?