While the world was blossoming with love and truth.
Before my heart could interpret a sigh,
Or a tear-drop’s shadow creep into my eye,
Ere I’d missed from the circle of friendship’s chain
The link once lost that we ne’er regain,
The future to me was a vast expanse,
Its depth I could solve at a single glance,
Knew not of the troubles that torture the soul
Hidden away in its sober fold.
Yet, to-night, as I dream in the gathering gloom,