Poems (Hornblower)/Youth
For works with similar titles, see Youth.
YOUTH.
In the days of our youth is a glow and a feeling, Which never on life's chequered path may return;For the world is all brightness and beauty revealing, Ere its guilt or its coldness have taught us to mourn.There 's a mirth in our smiles, and a balm in our tears, An unbroken hope, and a lightness of heart,Which seldom, or never, futurity wears, When the freshness of being begins to depart.
All nature is drest in our own lovely dreams, And we image a vision surpassingly fan,And we climb o'er the mountains, or he by the streams, As free as the flowers and the waters from care:And the tears of the day are effaced, by the sweetness That waits on a calm and unbroken repose;And day after day, in its innocent fleetness, Brings joy m its rising, and peace in its close.
But time with its coldness effaces the charm; The flowers are as fair, and the lakes are as bright,But, alas! the young feelings, so lovely and warm, No longer are there to inspire the delight;And sorrows and cares, which young life never knew, Come breathing their mist o'er the heart and the eye,And we turn to the days which so rapidly flew, With a throb of the heart, with a tear, and a sigh!