240

Youth and Age

So loth we part from all we love,
From all the links that bind us;
So turn our hearts, as on we rove,
To those we've left behind us!
When, round the bowl, of vanish'd years
We talk with joyous seeming—
With smiles that might as well be tears,
So faint, so sad their beaming;
While memory brings us back again
Each early tie that twined us,
O, sweet's the cup that circles then
To those we've left behind us!

And when, in other climes, we meet
Some isle or vale enchanting,
Where all looks flowery, wild and sweet,
And nought but love is wanting;
We think how great had been our bliss
If Heaven had but assign'd us
To live and die in scenes like this,
With some we've left behind us!
As travellers oft look back at eve
When eastward darkly going,
To gaze upon that light they leave
Still faint behind them glowing,-
So, when the close of pleasure's day
To gloom hath near consign'd us,
We turn to catch one fading ray

Of joy that's left behind us.

CCXXII

T. MOORE

YOUTH AND AGE

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull

decay;

A Lesson

241

'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone, which

fades so fast,

But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past.
Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness
Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt, or ocean of excess:
The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain
The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch

again.

Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes

down;

It cannot feel for others' woes, it dare not dream its own; That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears, And though the eye may sparkle still, 'tis where the ice

appears.

Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast,

Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest;

'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe,

All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.

O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,

Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd

As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,

So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow to

me!

CCXXIII

A LESSON

LORD BYRON

There is a flower, the Lesser Celandine,

That shrinks like many more from cold and rain,
And the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

R

242

Past and Present

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,
Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm
In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.
But lately, one rough day, this flower I past,
And recognized it, though an alter'd form,
Now standing forth an offering to the blast,
And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

I stopp'd and said, with inly-mutter'd voice,
'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold;
This neither is its courage nor its choice,
But its necessity in being old.

'The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;
It cannot help itself in its decay;

Stiff in its members, wither'd, changed of hue,'-
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was gray.
To be a prodigal's favourite—then, worse truth,
A miser's pensioner-behold our lot!

O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things Youth needed not!
W. WORDSWORTH

The Light of other Days

I remember, I remember
The roses, red and white,
The violets, and the lily-cups-
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,—
The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;

My spirit flew in feathers then

That is so heavy now,

And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow.

I remember, I remember

The fir-trees dark and high;

I used to think their slender tops

Were close against the sky :

It was a childish ignorance,

But now 'tis little joy

To know I'm farther off from Heaven

Than when I was a boy.

243

T. HOOD

CCXXV

THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Fond Memory brings the light

Of other days around me :

The smiles, the tears

Of boyhood's years,

244

Invocation

The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends so link'd together
I've seen around me fall

Like leaves in wintry weather,
I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled

Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

T. MOORE

CCXXVI

INVOCATION

Rarely, rarely comest thou,
Spirit of Delight!
Wherefore hast thou left me now

Many a day and night?
Many a weary night and day
'Tis since thou art fled away.