A Farewell to Youth

Ere that I say farewell to youth, and take 
The homely road that leads to life's decline, 
Let me be sure again I shall not pine 
To taste the bliss you bid me to forsake: 
That Spring's returning raptures will not wake 
Too late repentance for abjuring mine, 
Nor the old sweets I pledge me to resign 
Behind them leave the bitterness of ache. 
Yet is there nothing of one's generous prime 
To bear me kindred company to the end, 
Some passionate longing, some belief sublime, 
Some wrong to right, some failure to befriend? 
Leave me but these, I care not where I wend, 
But down life's slope go hand-in-hand with Time.