Sonnets :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ah me! this little life will soon run out;
Methinks, I feel myself already old,
Eyes dim, limbs stiff, step feeble, and blood cold,
With youth no longer flush'd, or vigour stout;
Yet still my breast resumes its wonted fire,
When 'neath my window at pale twilight's hour,
Young hearts leap lightly. Feeling then the power
Of their chaste joys, strong comes the fond desire
To live again those years that written are
In heaven's eternal record of things past.
Unhappy man! on too wide ocean cast,
Doom'd to sail onwards mid life's billowy war,
Yet looking back, as tho' thou would'st return
To those blest shores thou leavest, and leavest to mourn.