As Youth starts out in the long race of Life

The tracks run free and clear on every side.

It matters little which Youth takes.

Any great goal through any stress or strife

However hard, Youth calls as good as gained

If Youth but starts. But soon across the path

Spring hindrances. A lack of ready wealth

Forbids this way. This pleasant shady lane

Of life Youth must avoid. A difference of class

Shuts off one goal that Youth had hoped to reach.

Harder grows the way. The rosy light that shone at first

Is gone. A mass of man-made laws forbidding stands

On every side, and Youth, wearied ere half-way

His race is run, drifts to a gentler path,

Convention-bound, and leading where his fathers ran.