 | Songs and ballads by Samuel Lover |  |
“ONCE UPON A TIME.”
“Once upon a time.”—I love the phrase,
It bears me back to days of old,
When pearls were strung on fairy lays,
And I was rich in fairy gold;
When rubies grew on silver stems,
And emeralds were the leaves of trees,
And diamonds were the dew-drop gems
That gleam'd on wonders such as these,
“Once upon a time.”
It bears me back to days of old,
When pearls were strung on fairy lays,
And I was rich in fairy gold;
When rubies grew on silver stems,
And emeralds were the leaves of trees,
And diamonds were the dew-drop gems
That gleam'd on wonders such as these,
“Once upon a time.”
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With childhood pass'd those dreams away,
The rose assum'd the ruby's place,
And leaves that lost the emerald's ray,
Found greater worth in nature's grace;
In riper years, the rose more bright
To fancy seem'd on beauty's cheek,
And what were diamonds to the light
In beauty's eye my heart might seek?
“Once upon a time.”
The rose assum'd the ruby's place,
And leaves that lost the emerald's ray,
Found greater worth in nature's grace;
In riper years, the rose more bright
To fancy seem'd on beauty's cheek,
And what were diamonds to the light
In beauty's eye my heart might seek?
“Once upon a time.”
But time rolls on; the cloud of years
Its shadow o'er our lives will cast,
And when the present dark appears,
Then lingering love beholds the past;
And when some friend, some future day,
Remembers him who weaves this rhyme,
Perchance she'll sigh and sadly say
“Once upon a time.—Once upon a time!”
Its shadow o'er our lives will cast,
And when the present dark appears,
Then lingering love beholds the past;
And when some friend, some future day,
Remembers him who weaves this rhyme,
Perchance she'll sigh and sadly say
“Once upon a time.—Once upon a time!”
| Songs and ballads by Samuel Lover | |