Milton, In Youth

Milton, our noblest poet, in the grace 
Of youth, in those fair eyes and clustering hair, 
That brow untouched by one faint line of care. 
To mar its openness, we seem to trace 
The front of the first lord of human race, 
'Mid thine own Paradise portrayed so fair, 
Ere Sin or Sorrow scathed it: such the air 
That characters thy youth. Shall time efface 
These lineaments as crowding cares assail! 
It is the lot of fall'n humanity. 
What boots it! armed in adamantine mail, 
The unconquerable mind, and genius high, 
Right onward hold their way through weal and woe, 
Or whether life's brief lot be high or low!