Golden Wedding

How high and far away appears,
    In young love’s golden prime,
The misty height of fifty years
    Dim in the deeps of time.

How low, when on its crest they stand
    Gray lovers, true and tried,
Still dwelling in their Eden land
    With many a love beside.

We hail you on that emerald steep,
    Serene in ripening years;
Amid the harvest sheaves ye reap
    In mingled smiles and tears.

Still golden in the light that beams
    Upon the westward slopes,
Down which ye move in chastened gleams
    Of fadeless loves and hopes.

The Bridal Angel comes more near
    With love’s immortal crown,
And richer boons as year by year,
    To time’s abyss drops down.

Long may the sunset gold abide
    To light your lingering feet,
Still moving heavenwards side by side,
    Where once more may we meet.