Page:Poems Hornblower.djvu/66

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54

VERSES.
I heard a song, and it softly fell
On my ear like one of other years;
And I felt my heart to its cadence swell,
And its sweetness drew some lingering tears.

Oh! it made me muse on many a one,
Who listened once with me to the strain;
Long, long from all but my memory gone,
The loved, whom I never may see again.

It made me sad, for it brought the days
When my hopes were bright, and my heart was young;
When my lips were tuned to joy and praise,
And the freshness of life was in my song.

I listened and wept—yet when it was o'er,
So strangely sweetness mixed with pain,
That though my very heart it tore,
I asked for that mournful strain again.