Poems in The Court Journal during the year 1835 by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.)/Former Times
The Court Journal, 19th September 1835, page 625
FORMER TIMES.
By L. E. L.
We meet not in the valley
Where we were wont to meet:
Where the little brook was flowing,
And the birds were singing sweet.
Our treasures were the lilies
That open in the spring,
Or the purple feathers falling
From off the peacock's wing.
We were young, and we were happy,
The present was our own,
The past was not remembered,
The future was unknown.
The music of the river,
The dear blue sky above,
Filled the inmost heart within us
With happiness and love.
We had a thousand fancies,
And we had not a care—
Life's hours were stealing round us,
While dreaming what they were.
We read old tales of fairies
And half believed them true,
The fortune of our future
Had, at least, enough to do.
Youth's clear and far horizon
Affords such ample scope,
And we too, had our fairy,
The early fairy–Hope.
We had some thought of changes
Whene'er that future came;
But it was still, in changing,
To find our hearts the same.
I linger o'er those moments
With a true and fond regret—
As we watch the last faint colours
Of a sun that long has set.
No friendships are unselfish
As those which first we knew;
So linked by pleasant memories—
So generous and so true.
The best of those affections
We form in after hours,
Are the faint and chilling perfume
Of the after-growth of flowers.
We have fallen from each other,
Have changed and disagreed;
Our lips are closed and careless,
Of love we have no need.
The world has entered in us,
We doubt where once we dreamed;
We have learnt the bitter lesson,
There is nothing what it seemed.
Oh, lone and silent valley,
Thy loveliness is o'er:
For youth, hope, and affection,
Return to thee no more.