I sit by the fire musing,
With sad and downcast eye,
And my laden breast gives utt’rance
To many a weary sigh;
Hushed is each worldly feeling,
Dimmed is each day-dream bright—
O heavy heart, can’st tell me
Why I’m so sad to-night?

’Tis not that I mourn the freshness
Of youth fore’er gone by—
Its life with pulse high springing,
Its cloudless, radiant eye—
Finding bliss in every sunbeam,
Delight in every part,
Well springs of purest pleasure
In its high ardent heart.

Nor yet is it for those dear ones
Who’ve passed from earth away
That I grieve—in spirit kneeling
Above their beds of clay;
O, no! while my glance upraising
To yon calm shining sky,
My pale lips, quivering, murmur,
“They are happier than I!”

But, alas! my spirit mourns
As, weary, it looks back—
Finding naught of good or holy
On life’s past barren track—
I mourn for the countless errors
That on mem’ry’s page crowd on,
And sorrow for lost chances
Of good I might have done.

But, courage! I must arouse me,
The day is not yet o’er,
And I still may make atonement
Ere leaving life’s last shore:
One act of meek oblation,
A tear of penance bright,
Will be counted as rare treasures
In heaven’s loving sight.