Scripture Verse

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. Ecclesiastes 12:1–2

Introduction

Words: Em­ma La­za­rus (1849–1887), alt. This text is giv­en a date of Jan­ua­ry 10, 1866, in A Lib­ra­ry of Po­et­ry for Sun­day Read­ing, by Phil­ip Schaff & Ar­thur Gil­man (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1880), page 332.

Music: Ab­er­deen pos­si­bly by An­drew Tait, in James Chal­mers’ un­ti­tled col­lect­ion, 1749. Me­lo­dy from Ru­di­ments of Mu­sic, by Ro­bert Brem­ner, 1756 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes (these use an ev­en num­ber of vers­es):

portrait
Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)

Lyrics

Remember Him, the on­ly One,
Now, ere the years flow by—
Now, while the smile is on thy lip,
The light with­in thine eye.

Now, ere for thee the sun has lost
Its glo­ry and its light,
And earth re­joice thee not with flow­ers,
Nor with its stars the night.

Now, while thou lov­est earth, be­cause
She is so won­drous fair
With dai­sies and with prim­ros­es,
And sun­lit, wav­ing air.

And not be­cause her bo­som holds
Thy dear­est and thy best,
And some day will thy­self in­fold
In calm and peace­ful rest.

Now, while thou lov­est vio­lets,
Because mid grass they wave,
And not be­cause they bloom up­on
Some ear­ly shap­en grave.

Now, while thou lov­est trem­bling stars,
But just be­cause they shine,
And not be­cause they’re near­er one
Who ne­ver can be thine.

Now, while thou lov­est mu­sic’s strains,
Because they cheer thy heart,
And not be­cause from ach­ing eyes
They make the tear drops start.

Now, while thou lov­est all on earth,
And deem­est all will last,
Before thy hope has van­ished quite
And ev­ery joy has passed.

Remember Him, the on­ly One,
Before the days draw nigh
When thou shalt have no joy in them,
And pray­ing, yearn to die.