Poems and Lancashire Songs :: :: University of Virginia Library

Oh! sweetly the morning of childhood
Awoke me to careless delight;
And blithe as a bird of the wildwood
I played in its beautiful light;
The world was a magical treasure
That filled me with wonder and joy;
And I fluttered from pleasure to pleasure,
Delighted—I couldn't tell why:
If I thought of to-morrow,
I dreamt not of sorrow;
And I smiled as the day went by.

II

Gay youth, with its glittering hours,
Came frolicking on, full of glee,
Where hope's charming sunlighted bowers
Were thickly in blossom for me;—
My heart was an harp whose emotion
Awoke to all beautiful things,
And love was the dearest devotion
That played in its tremulous strings:
So, I dallied, delighted,
And carelessly slighted
Old Time and his rustling wings.

III

Now, the noontide of life has gone by me,
The visions of morning have died;
And the world is beginning to try me
With struggles that chasten my pride;—

As the twilight of time, softly stealing,
Comes o'er me with shadows of grey,
I feel the sad truth now revealing,—
It draws to the close of the day;
And thoughtfully eyeing
The past, I sit sighing,
And wondering how long I shall stay.