Page:The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems.pdf/30



When love gave the word, o'er the landscape of snow, We flew like the wings of the wind! In this ice-cover'd region, his sun-beam may glow, To melt and to soften the mind!

But thy youth is departed, thy spirit and grace, And thy limbs all their vigor have lost; For age steals upon thee with lingering pace, And colder than winter his frost.

How oft has the summer, in mantle of green, Array'd the wild Tenglio's side; Since thou, oh, my rein-deer! my servant hast been, My faithful companion and guide!

When we journey'd together, and both in our prime, How fleet were thy steps o'er the waste; But fleeter than thee, oh, my rein-deer! is time, More swift, more unsparing in haste!