I was as youthful as youth could be:

Cramming my noddle, as young folks do,

With a thousand things more nice than true.

Now this noddle of mine looks strange,

With its plenty of silver—and no small change!—

Surely I came the swiftest way

From the young and green to the old and gray.

Though the day be a changeful thing

In winter and summer, autumn and spring;

Days in December and days in June