A Highland Regiment/Dead Youth

by Ewart Alan Mackintosh

For works with similar titles, see Dead Youth.

     
THE days of dreams are over,
  The days of songs are done,
So bid good-bye, young lover,
  To boyhood's dying sun ;
Good-bye to joy and sadness.
  Good-bye to sun and rain,
And to the swift spring madness
  That will not come again.


Oh days of careless laughter,
  Oh nights of sudden tears,
We shall not know hereafter
  Forgotten hopes and fears.
Oh dreams that bide no longer
  With young hearts waxen cold,
Are lovely things no stronger,
  And must you too grow old ?


Yes, memory is flying,
  And golden dreams must fade.
And all our loves are dying
  With us beneath the shade ;
And buds that ripen never
  Their bloomless leaves have shed,
For youth is dead for ever,
  And all his thoughts are dead.

1913