Youth and Age

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge portrait

1772 to 1834

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Track 1

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

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Poet portrait