Classic Poem

Do you still remember
When you and I were young,
How the merry cricket talked,
How the throstle sung?
How above our spring-tide
Azure heaven hung?
Ah! the times were merry times,
When you and I were young!

Speed was in my footsteps;
Hope was in mine eye;
And the soul of Poesy
Was my dear ally,
Earth was then as beautiful, —
Ay, as is the sky,
When I look'd beside me,
And saw — that you were nigh.

If my dreams were sinful,
God forgave the crime;
For I look with calmness
Back upon my prime.
Have you quite forgotten
All that sunny time,
When we whispered secrets —
Not to be told in rhyme?

Well, — our springs are over,
(Oh, sweet days of yore!)
Autumn wild surrounds us,
And I see an aspect hoar,
Like angry Winter, frowning
From that twilight shore,
Where our steps are hastening, —
To return no more!

Mourn not: we inherited,
With our gift of birth,
Good and evil mingled —
Tears amidst our mirth.
Thou shalt be remembered,
For thy gentle worth;
And I'll dream that regions
Shine beyond the earth.