Where cometh never a shadow of gloom!
Fadeless and fair is that glorious dawn—
Then we’ll not mourn for the faded and gone!
Faded and gone are the sweet dreams of childhood,
When the young wings of the Spirit were free,
Folded or furled ’mid the shadowy wildwood—
Sweeping the surface of life’s sunny sea.
Time’s fading finger hath sullied the leaf,
Stainless and lovely in childhood’s pure years;
Pages of beauty once brilliant, yet brief,