Poems (E. L. F.)/The Ruin
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THE RUIN
I stood beside a ruined hall,
Where the sunshine brightly played,
And methought the fragments of that grey wall
Shrank in the gloom dismayed.
Where the sunshine brightly played,
And methought the fragments of that grey wall
Shrank in the gloom dismayed.
It was all too bright for the mouldering tower,
And the green ivy's tendril embrace;
There Time had impressed, 'neath its cold blighting power,
Full many a shadowy trace.
And the green ivy's tendril embrace;
There Time had impressed, 'neath its cold blighting power,
Full many a shadowy trace.
And I thought on the lovely and lone—
On the beautiful, brave, and the free;
And the scenes and the revelry gone
'Neath the waves of dark Time's foaming sea.
On the beautiful, brave, and the free;
And the scenes and the revelry gone
'Neath the waves of dark Time's foaming sea.
Yet, despite the damp chill of decay
That hovered around the wild scene,
Sweet flowers in their beauty would stray,
As if visions like these ne'er had been.
That hovered around the wild scene,
Sweet flowers in their beauty would stray,
As if visions like these ne'er had been.
Oh! 'tis thus, in this world of care,
Though age may be totterihg near,
Youth smiles with as buoyant an air
As if Time were no messenger here.
Though age may be totterihg near,
Youth smiles with as buoyant an air
As if Time were no messenger here.