 | Rhymes with reason and without |  |
XVIII.
HOPE.
Through young eyes look we out on life's highway,—The sun doth gladden it, and cooling streams
Murmur like pleasant voices in our dreams,
And pleasure beckons on with aspect gay;
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To lure the unwary to remote retreats,
Holding up promises of rarer sweets,
Which as pursued evade the grasp by flying!
Bright hues soon vanish and the sky grows dark,
The path uncertain cheats the weary eye,
Realities beset we may not fly,
And hope 's diminished to the merest spark,—
Melteth away, like Whipple's “views,” and leaves
Joy's phantoms only, o'er which memory grieves.
| Rhymes with reason and without | |