Hymnal: The Christian Hymn Book
Date: 1865
Compiler: Alexander Campbell
Publisher/Printer: Central Book Concern
First Line: Alas how poor and little worth
Topic: The Present and the Future/Life and Death
Writer: <no first name given> Longfellow
Composer:
Meter: 8s and 4s
Tune:
Hymn Number: 1089
Page Number: 645, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsAlas! how poor and little worth
Are all those glittering toys of earth
That lure us here!
Dreams of a sleep that death must break;
Alas! before it bids us wake,
They disappear.
Where is the strength that spurned decay,
The step that rolled so light and gay,
The heart's blithe tone?
The strength is gone, the step is slow,
And joy grows weariness and wo
When age comes on.
Our birth is but a starting-place;
Life is the running of the race,
And death the goal:
There all those glittering toys are brought;
That path alone, of all unsought,
Is found of all.
O, let the soul its slumbers break,
Arouse its senses, and awake
To see how soon
Life, like its glories, glides away,
And the stern footsteps of decay
Come stealing on.