Time passed. My eldest girl was married
And I now am a grandsire grey;
One pet of four years old I’ve carried
Among the wild-flower’d meads to play.
In our old fields of childish pleasure,
Where now, as then, the cowslips blow,
She fills her basket’s ample measure,—
And that is not ten years ago.
But tho’ first love’s impassion’d blindness
Has pass’d away in colder light,