The Flight of Youth

 

The Flight of Youth

by Richard Henry Stoddard
 
 
There are gains for all our losses.
There are balms for all our pain:
But when youth, the dream, departs
It takes something from our hearts,
Ad it never comes again.
 
We are stronger, and are better,
Under manhood's sterner reign:
Still we feel that something sweet
Flowed youth, with flying feet,
And will never come again.
 
Something beautiful is vanished,
And we sigh for it in vain;
We behold it everywhere,
On the earth, and in the air,
But it never comes again!