Page:Poems Acton.djvu/42

Full many a year had o'er him pass'd,
Full many a flower had bloomed since last
      He had been there.

With the bright and sunny smile of youth,
With bounding step and heart of truth,
      He left it then:
A feeble man, by sickness bowed,
While whitened was the brow so proud,
      He came again.

And mournfully he looked around
Upon the well-remembered ground
      Of bygone years;
He had turned him from the world at last;
He had mourned his pride and errors past,
      With bitter tears.

And now he came to look once more,
Ere yet his stay on earth was o'er,
      Each spot upon;
Where in his childhood he had played,
Where in his joyous glee he strayed,
      In years long gone.

But dearer to his memory
Was that old and leafless withered tree
      Than all beside;