Page:The Man with the Hoe, Markham, 1900.djvu/91



Youth and Time

Once, I remember, the world was young;

The rills rejoiced with a silver tongue;

The field-lark sat in the wheat and sang;

The thrush's shout in the woodland rang;

The cliffs and the perilous sands afar

Were softened to mist by the morning star;

For Youth was with me (I know it now!),

And a light shone out from his wreathèd brow.

He turned the fields to enchanted ground,

He touched the rains with a dreamy sound.

But alas, he vanished, and Time appeared,

The Spirit of Ages, old and weird.

He crushed and scattered my beamy wings;

He dragged me forth from the court of kings;

He gave me doubt and a bloom of beard,

This Spirit of Ages, old and weird. 63