YOUTH.
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven!
The Prelude, Bk. XI. W. WORDSWORTH.
O Life! how pleasant in thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like school-boys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.
Epistle to James Smith. R. BURNS.
O, would I were a boy again,
When life seemed formed of sunny years,
And all the heart then knew of pain
Was wept away in transient tears!
O, would I were a boy again. M. LEMON.
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Long as the year's dull circle seems to run
When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one.
Imitations of Horace, Epistle I. Bk, I. A. POPE.
A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded,
A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.
Don Juan, Canto XV. LORD BYRON.
"Young, gay, and fortunate!" Each yields a theme.
And, first, thy youth: what says it to gray hairs?
Narcissa, I'm become thy pupil now;—
Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven.
Night Thoughts, Night V. DR. E. YOUNG.
This bud of lovely Summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc 2. SHAKESPEARE.
The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daffed the world aside,
And bid it pass.
King Henry IV., Pt. I. Act iv. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
King Henry V., Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
Essay on Criticism. A. POPE.
My salad days;
When I was green in judgment.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE.
The spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Returning, he proclaims by many a grace,
By shrugs and strange contortions of his face,
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam,
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
The Progress of Error. W. COWPER.
Young fellows will be young fellows.
Love in a Village, Act ii. Sc. 2. I. BICKERSTAFF.
Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.
Canto, Act ii. J. ADDISON.
Ah who, when fading of itself away,
Would cloud the sunshine of his little day!
Now is the May of life. Careering round,
Joy wings his feet, joy lifts him from the ground!
Human Life. S. ROGERS.
Our youth we can have but to-day:
We may always find time to grow old.
Can Love be Controlled by Advice? BISHOP G. BERKELEY.
Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree;
O! the joys, that came down shower-like,
Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty,
Ere I was old!
Ere I was old! Ah woful Ere.
Which tells me, Youth's no longer here!
Youth and Age. S.T. COLERIDGE.