Page:Felicia Hemans in The Amulet 1828.pdf/3

So might the days have been brightly told—
    Those days of song and dreams—
When shepherds gather'd their flocks of old,
    By the blue Arcadian streams.

So in those isles of delight, that rest
    Far off in a breezeless main,
Which many a bark, with a weary quest,
    Hath sought but still in vain.

Yet is not life, in its real flight,
    Mark'd thus—even thus—on earth,
By the closing of one hope's delight,
    And another's gentle birth?

Oh! let us live, so that flower by flower,
    Shutting in turn, may leave
A lingerer still for the sun-set hour,
    A charm for the shaded eve.