The Dream of Youth

In days of yore, while yet the world was new,

And all around was beautiful to view—

When spring or summer ruled the happy hours,

And golden fruit hung down mid opening flowers;

When, if you chanced among the woods to stray,

The rosy-footed dryad led the way,—

Or if, beside a mountain brook, your path,

You ever caught some naïad at her bath:

'Twas in that golden day, that Damon strayed.