Read "Youth's Agitations" by Matthew Arnold online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When I shall be divorced, some ten years hence, / From this poor present self which I am now; / When youth has done its tedious vain expense / Of passions that for ever ebb and flow; / Shall I not joy youth's heats are left behind, / And breathe more happy in an even clime?
Ah no! for then I shall begin to find / A thousand virtues in this hated time.
Then I shall wish its agitations back, / And all its thwarting currents of desire; / Then I shall praise the heat which then I lack, / And call this hurrying fever, generous fire, / And sigh that one thing only has been lent / To youth and age in common -- discontent.