Poems (Craik)/A Fable
A FABLE.
ILENT and sunny was the way Where Youth and I danced on together: So winding and embowered o'er, We could not see one rood before. Nevertheless all merrily We bounded onward, Youth and I, Leashed closely in a silken tether: (Well-a -day, well-a -day!) Ah Youth, ah Youth, but I would fain See thy sweet foolish face again! It came to pass, one morn of May, All in a swoon of golden weather, That I through green leaves fluttering Saw Joy uprise on Psyche wing: Eagerly, too eagerly We followed after,—Youth and I,— Till suddenly he slipped the tether: (Well-a -day, well-a-day!) "Where art thou, Youth?" I cried. In vain; He never more came back again.
Yet onward through the devious way In rain or shine, I recked not whether, Like many another maddened boy I tracked my Psyche-winged Joy; Till, curving round the bowery lane, Lo,—in the pathway stood pale Pain, And we met face to face together: (Well-a -day, well-a-day!) "Whence comest thou?"—and I writhed in vain—"Unloose thy cruel grasp, O Pain!"
But he would not. Since, day by day He has ta'en up Youth's silken tether And changed it into iron bands. So through rich vales and barren lands Solemnly, all solemnly, March we united, he and I; And we have grown such friends together (Well-a-day, well-a-day!) I and this my brother Pain, I think we'll never part again.