Ah! the dreams that I had from the poet,
When my soul drank in his song,
Have passed away with their splendour,
As the sunlight sweeps along.
And I feel no more the magic,
And the fancies of rainbow glow
That forever were with me and in me
In those years of long ago.
Yet I sigh for those early visions
As a bird longs for its mate;
Or as fields for the rain in summer;
But I weary as I wait.
For I feel that my heart is empty,
That the chambers within it must,
For lack of their old sweet dwellers,
Grow dim and gather dust.
Then come, O, ye vanish'd sunbeams,
That fell from the higher truth;
And come, O, ye aspirations
That peal'd through the march of youth.
Take your home in my heart's still chambers,
Let your footsteps be on the floor,
Till the smiles of your joy and gladness
Make this earth as it was before.
But they come no more to cheer me
As they did in those early days,
When the earth like a mighty temple
Flew open with psalm and praise.
They have left my rough, firm manhood
To colder and harsher gleams,
And have flown to some younger bosom
Aflush with its first sweet dreams.
But I mourn for that fallen worship
That will never rise again,
And my life droops at times with a sadness
As if of foreshadow'd pain.
Ah, the griefs that are in this lifetime
Seem but shadows to those that come
When the temples within us crumble,
And our first sweet faiths grow dumb.