"I know I must be old (how age deceives!) ..."

Photo by Brent Winter Sleep by Edith Matilda Thomas   I know it must be winter (though I sleep)-- I know it must be winter, for I dream  I dip my bare feet in the running stream,  And flowers are many, and the grass grows deep.    I know I must be old (how age deceives!)  I know I must be old, for, all unseen,  My heart grows young, as autumn fields grow green  When late rains patter on the falling sheaves.    I know I must be tired (and tired souls err)--  I know I must be tired, for all my soul  To deeds of daring beats a glad, faint roll,  As storms the riven pine to music stir.    I know I must be dying (Death draws near)--  I know I must be dying, for I crave  Life--life, strong life, and think not of the grave,  And turf-bound silence, in the frosty year.      Today's poem is in the public domain.

"Winter Sleep" by Edith Matilda Thomas was published in A Winter Swallow, With Other Verse (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896). Thomas acknowledged that her work was greatly influenced by the American poet Helen Hunt Jackson.