Classic Poem

A SAD , sweet gladness, full of tears,
And thoughts, that never cloy,
Of careless childhood's happier years,
Is memory's tranquil joy.

A rapturous and delusive dream
Of pleasures ne'er to be,
That o'er life's troubled waters gleam,
Is Hope's sweet revery.

Yet before Memory can look back,
When Hope is lost in sight,
Ah! where is Memory's fairy track,
Ah! where is Hope's delight?

The present is a weary scene,
And always wish'd away;
We live on " to be, " and " has been, "
But never on " to-day. "