It was one of my Mother’s favourite pieces of poetry. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote so much of great meaning but this extract gave my Mother purpose as she grew older. Must have been in the family as her Mother kept a day book during the First World War that had snippets from Longfellow scattered liberally throughout.

“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come it is no longer day?
Something remains for us to do, or dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;
For age is opportunity no less than youth itself,
Though in another dress
And as the twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.”

very best wishes, Denny Bradbury