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