Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/19

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The years which since thy birth have pass'd away May well to thy young retrospect appear A measureless extent:—like yesterday To me, so soon they fill'd their short career. To thee discourse of reason have they brought, With sense of time and change; and something too Of this precarious state of things have taught, Where Man abideth never in one stay; And of mortality a mournful thought. And I have seen thine eyes suffused in grief. When I have said that with autumnal grey The touch of eld hath mark'd thy father's head; That even the longest day of life is brief, And mine is falling fast into the yellow leaf.

Thy happy nature from the painful thought With instinct turns, and scarcely canst thou bear To hear me name the Grave: Thou knowest not How large a portion of my heart is there!