Page:Poems McDonald.djvu/168

And here is writ a blithesome song,
  And here a tender lay;
This page is sad enough, I ween,
  And this one passing gay.
And here a youthful poet's hand
  Placed the sweet rhymes he wove
The truant!—in a foreign land
  He sought another love.

Thou mak'st me sad, thou gilded toy!
  And as I gaze on thee,
I think how time and change have thrown
  Their shadows over me:
The flush of youth has vanished now,
  Friends severed far and wide;
In curls that wave on many a brow,
  Time's silvery foot-marks hide.

Go back then to thy silent nook,
  Memento of the past!
Thou tell'st a tale, my much-loved book,
  Of years that flew too fast;