New Zealand Verse/The Answer of the Days
CLIII.
The Answer of the Days.
I sometimes turn from these dark days that be
Backward unto the fair days once I knew—
The far, fair days when all the world seemed true,
Ere yet I learned that joy had wings to flee.
“O Days,” I cry, “so wonderful and blue,
Come back again; come back and bring to me
The silent laughter and the vanished glee;
Come back, dear days, I swear to cherish you!”
Backward unto the fair days once I knew—
The far, fair days when all the world seemed true,
Ere yet I learned that joy had wings to flee.
“O Days,” I cry, “so wonderful and blue,
Come back again; come back and bring to me
The silent laughter and the vanished glee;
Come back, dear days, I swear to cherish you!”
Then back on me with sad, reproachful eye
Each old Day looks, and voices without sound
Come from them: “Mortal, cease that bootless cry;
We came to you bliss-laden, and we crowned
Your soul with joys; and after all we found
You blest us not, but smiled to see us die.”
Each old Day looks, and voices without sound
Come from them: “Mortal, cease that bootless cry;
We came to you bliss-laden, and we crowned
Your soul with joys; and after all we found
You blest us not, but smiled to see us die.”