But the native air is pure and sweet, As they balance up and down, And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, My heart goes back to wander there, And among the dreams of the days that were, I find my lost youth again. And the strange and beautiful song, The groves are repeating it still: "A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long O WORLD! O life! O time! On whose last steps I climb Trembling at that where I had stood before; When will return the glory of your prime? No more-Oh, never more! "Gains for all Our Losses " Out of the day and night A joy has taken flight; Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar, Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight No more-Oh, never more! 1821. 1824. Percy Bysshe Shelley. "THERE ARE GAINS FOR ALL 1880. OUR LOSSES" THERE are gains for all losses, We are stronger, and are better, Something beautiful is vanished, But it never comes again. Richard Henry Stoddard. 1848. "IN A DREAR-NIGHTED DECEMBER" IN a drear-nighted December, The north cannot undo them, In a drear-nighted December, They stay their crystal fretting, About the frozen time. Ah! would 't were so with many A gentle girl and boy! John Keats. 16 24 "I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER" I REMEMBER, I remember, The house where I was born, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, Where I was used to swing, And thought the air must rush as fresh To swallows on the wing; My spirit flew in feathers then, That is so heavy now, And summer pools could hardly cool The fever on my brow! 8 16 24 1826. I remember, I remember, The fir-trees dark and high; But now 't is little joy To know I'm farther off from Heav'n 32 Thomas Hood. THOU LINGERING STAR THOU ling'ring star with less'ning ray, Again thou usher'st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn. O Mary, dear departed shade! Where is thy place of blissful rest? See'st thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? 8 That sacred hour can I forget, Can I forget the hallow'd grove, Where, by the winding Ayr, we met Eternity cannot efface Those records dear of transports past, Thy image at our last embrace Ah! little thought we 't was our last! 16 |