362
The Past and the Future.
I've looked, and trusted, sighed, and loved my last!
The dream hath vanished, the hot fever's past
That parched my youth!
Though cheerless was the matin of my years,
And dim life's dawning through a vale of tears,
Yet Hope, in ruth,
With smile persuasive, evermore would say—
'Live on, live on!—Expect Joy's summer day'—
Vain counsel, void of truth!
Yes, to the world Tve clung with fond embrace,
And each succeeding day did more efface
Its hollow joys,
And friends died out around me every where,
And I was left to be the idle stare
Of vagrant boys—
A land-mark on the ever-shifting tide
Of fashion, folly, impudence and pride,
And ribald noise.
