Page:Poems of home and country (IA poemsofhomecount01smit).pdf/79



HE friendships we formed when life was still young;

The sports that we joined in, the songs we then sung,—

How oft from the chambers of memory they well,

Like the echo of waves in the beautiful shell.

The griefs we have met on the pathway of life,

The conquests won bravely amid the stern strife,

The light and the shadow, the joy and the woe,—

Form, like sunshine and raindrop, the radiant bow

That rests on the brow of the storms that are o'er,

That lights up the wave where it breaks on the shore,

That fades like the fair hues of hopes that are riven,

But sails, as it fades, thro' the blue arch of heaven.

The garlands we wove on the foretop of Time,

Tho' robbed of the freshness they wore in our prime;

The castles we built, so lofty and fair,

Tho' crumbled to dust, or vanished in air;

The barks we once freighted, with hearts beating high,

And launched on the sea without tremor or sigh,