 | Rhymes with reason and without |  |
185
A RETROSPECTION.
A panoramic scope of years
Is seen through retrospection's glass,
And showers of tributary tears
Confirm the pictures as they pass.
Is seen through retrospection's glass,
And showers of tributary tears
Confirm the pictures as they pass.
Pass ye, the joys of early hours;
Pass ye, the friends of other days;
Pass all, who strewed my path with flowers
That bloomed in youth's primeval rays!
Pass ye, the friends of other days;
Pass all, who strewed my path with flowers
That bloomed in youth's primeval rays!
Return, the distant and the dead,
The voices of the fruitful past,
The buoyant mind long, long since fled,
The hopes too bright and fair to last!
The voices of the fruitful past,
The buoyant mind long, long since fled,
The hopes too bright and fair to last!
I see again a gladsome hearth,
An echo hear of distant glee;
Bright eyes still beam with love and mirth,
And turn their fondest gaze on me!
An echo hear of distant glee;
Bright eyes still beam with love and mirth,
And turn their fondest gaze on me!
Stay, vision bright! my fainting soul
Would leave the misty future's track,
And to that blessed starting-goal
Would look for hope and solace back.
Would leave the misty future's track,
And to that blessed starting-goal
Would look for hope and solace back.
186
Alas! 't is fading as I gaze,—
The pictures have in beauty flown,—
And left, for memory of those days,
The stern reality of our own.
The pictures have in beauty flown,—
And left, for memory of those days,
The stern reality of our own.
The dust of many mouldering years
Obscures the blessed vision sped,
And the libation of our tears
Is now on memory's altar shed.
Obscures the blessed vision sped,
And the libation of our tears
Is now on memory's altar shed.
| Rhymes with reason and without | |