Poems (David)/Youth and Age

by Edith Mary David

YOUTH AND AGE.

OH! youth,—oh! love,—oh! fancied dream,
 Your airy garlands weave;
How bright the golden sunny beams
 A human heart receives!
Oh! world, oh! power—ambition's goal!
 Thou art as crumbling dust.
Too bright, too fair, thy visions fall,
 For hearts e'er to distrust.
Oh! glory, wisdom, truth's fond dreams,
 Thy pure unsullied ray,
Thy noble trust and deathless beams
 Can never know decay!
It is the thought that burns within
 Bright by its own ideal worth;
So richly pure, so grand undimmed,
 Thus guarded by itself!
Oh! trust, oh! peace, the joy thou art,
 To many but a name!
Oh! happy is that human heart,
 That such a state hath gained.
Oh! faith and hope,—eternity,
 Whose shade shall ever keep,
Beside the path, traced out for thee
 To guide thy wandering feet.
Oh! life, oh! death, and fleeting time!
 Dread part of human fate.
How cold a refting touch of thine
 Whate'er our mortal state.
It is the thought that burns within,
 Cooled by ages of gathered snow;
Our thoughts tho' e'en their fires are dimmed,
 Still warm where'er they go!