Youth.
How beautiful the scenes of youth1
Awaken to the mind !2
Scenes, like the summer ocean smooth,3
Serener—fairer far, than Truth4
On earth shall ever find !5
Time is a tyrant—months and years6
Pass onward like the sea, that leaves7
A solitary isle, which rears8
Its passive bosom, and appears9
Between the rolling waves10
In life there is no second spring—11
The past is gone—for ever gone !12
We cannot check a moment’s wing ;13
Pierce thro’ futurity ; or bring14
The heart its vanished tone !15
Resplendent as a summer sky,16
When day-light lingers in the west,17
To Retrospection’s loving eye,18
The blooming fields of childhood lie,19
By Fancy’s finger drest20
A greener foliage decks the grove ;21
A brighter tint pervades fie flower ;22
More azure seems the heaven above ;23
The earth a very bower of love,24
And man within that bower !25
And ever, when the storms of Fate26
Come darkening o’er the star of life,27
We backward turn to renovate28
Our thoughts with freshness, and create29
An antidote to strife.30
Thus dead and silent are the strings,31
As legends say, of Memnon’s lyre ;32
Till, from the orient, Phœbus flings33
His smiles of golden light, and brings34
Life, harmony, and fire !35