Life’s cup is drain’d—earth fades before their eye;
Their task is closing—they have but to die.
Ask ye why fled they hither?—that their doom
Might be, to sink unfetter’d to the tomb.
And youth, in all its pride of strength, is there,
And buoyancy of spirit, form’d to dare
And suffer all things—fall’n on evil days,
Yet darting o’er the world an ardent gaze,
As on the arena where its powers may find
Full scope to strive for glory with mankind.