---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Downing, Andrew
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 1
number: 6
published: 1898-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Andrew Downing, "Now, a Poem," *Improvement Era* 1, no. 6 (April 1898): 394.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera16unse
start_page: 394
end_page: 394
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16unse
  publication_year: 1898
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1898, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Now, a Poem

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NOW.
            I   want no pledge of Joys to be,
                No false, uncertain vow;
            That friend, alone, is kind to me       '

                Who proves his friendship now.
                       Life's changing year is brief, so brief,
                         And I shall slumber long,
                       When autumn binds the yellow sheaf,
                         And winter ends the song.
            Then, sweetheart, come today and bring
                Love's flower in perfect bloom;
            I   shall not care what wreaths you fling
                Tomorrow on my tomb.
                                         Andrew Downing,
                                   From Trumpeters and Other Poems.