Youth and Age

Youth and Age

THERE'S not a joy the world can give like that it takes away

When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay;

'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone which fades so fast

But the tender bloom of heart is gone ere youth itself be past.

Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness 5

Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess:

The magnet of their course is gone or only points in vain

The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again.

Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes down;

It cannot feel for others' woes it dare not dream its own; 10

That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears

And though the eye may sparkle still 'tis where the ice appears.

Though wit may flash from fluent lips and mirth distract the breast

Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest

'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe 15

All green and wildly fresh without but worn and gray beneath.

Oh could I feel as I have felt or be what I have been

Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene —

As springs in deserts found seem sweet all brackish though they be

So midst the wither'd waste of life those tears would flow to me! 20