The Poetry Corner

Joy's Magic

By Madison Julius Cawein

Joy's is the magic sweet, That makes Youth's pulses beat, Puts music in young feet, The old heart hears, the sad heart hears, that 's near it: And Joy's the pleasant pain, That holds us, heart and brain, When Old Age, sound and sane, With memories nears, long memories nears the spirit. Joy's is the witchery rare, That on the face of Care Puts smiles; and rapture where Love holds her breath, her heart's wild breath, to still her: And Joy it is that plays On Time's old lute of days As Life goes on her ways With thoughts of Death, gray thoughts of Death, that chill her.