Youth and Age
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772 to 1834
Track 1
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How lightly then it flashed along:—
O! the joys, that came down shower-like,
When Youth and I liv'd in't together.
That ask no aid of sail or oar,
Yet hath outstay'd his welcome while,
Nought cared this body for wind or weather
This drooping gait, this altered size:
Dew-drops are the gems of morning,
It cannot be, that Thou art gone!
That only serves to make us grieve,
Friendship is a sheltering tree;
That Youth and I are house-mates still.
On winding lakes and rivers wide,
What strange disguise hast now put on,
With oft and tedious taking-leave,
Like some poor nigh-related guest,
Ere I was old.
Where no hope is, life's a warning
Which tells me, Youth's no longer here!
With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,
But springtide blossoms on thy lips,
I see these locks in silvery slips,
This breathing house not built with hands,
To make believe, that Thou art gone?
Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying,
That may not rudely be dismist.
Life is but thought: so think I will
When we are old:
O Youth! for years so many and sweet
Thy vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd:—
When I was young?—Ah, woful when!
O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands,
Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,
This body that does me grievous wrong,
When I was young!
Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!
Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;
'Tis known, that Thou and I were one,
Both were mine! Life went a maying
Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere,
And thou wert aye a masker bold!
That only serves to make us grieve
Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee—
Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty,
And tears take sunshine from thine eyes!
I'll think it but a fond conceit—
But the tears of mournful eve!
And tells the jest without the smile.
That fear no spite of wind or tide!