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Youth and Age
Verse, a Breeze `mid blossoms straying,
Where HOPE clung feeding, like a bee--
Both were mine ! Life went a-maying With NATURE, HOPE, and POESY,
When I was young !
When I was young ?--Ah, woful WHEN !
Ah ! for the Change `twixt Now and Then !
This breathing House not built with hands,
This body that does me grievous wrong,
O`er æry Cliffs and glittering Sands,
How lightly then it flashed along :--
Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,
On winding lakes and rivers wide,
That ask no aid of Sail or Oar,
That fear no spite of Wind or Tide !
Nought cared this Body for wind or weather
When YOUTH and I lived in`t together.
FLOWERS are lovely ; LOVE is flower-like ;
FRIENDSHIP is a sheltering tree ;
O ! the Joys, that came down shower-like,
Of FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and LIBERTY, Ere I was old !
Ere I was old ? Ah woful ERE,
Which tells me, YOUTH`S no longer here !
O YOUTH ! for years so many and sweet,
`Tis known, that Thou and I were one,
I`ll think it but a fond conceit--
It cannot be that Thou art gone !
Thy Vesper-bell hath not yet toll`d :--
And thou wert aye a Masker bold !
What strange Disguise hast now put on,
To make believe, that thou art gone ?
I see these Locks in silvery slips,
This drooping Gait, this altered Size :
But SPRINGTIDE blossoms on thy Lips,
And Tears take sunshine from thine eyes !
Life is but Thought : so think I will
That YOUTH and I are House-mates still.
Dew-drops are the gems of morning,
But the tears of mournful eve !
Where no hope is, life`s a warning
That only serves to make us grieve, When we are old :
That only serves to make us grieve
With oft and tedious taking-leave,
Like some poor nigh-related guest,
That may not rudely be dismist ;
Yet hath outstay`d his welcome while,
And tells the jest without the smile.
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