Oh fleeting hour! Oh faltering heart!
Oh long and sad farewell!
How bitter long we twain may part
It is not ours to tell.
For many a golden shaft will beam
Through many a pearly rain,
Down forest aisles, o'er mountain stream,
Ere we can meet again.
Yet, when on far off ocean's foam,
Or on some foreign strand,
Bright Memory wafts thy spirit home
Unto thy native land,
Bethink thee of those gladsome days
When carelessly we strayed
O'er furrowed sand, or daisied braes,
While Ocean minstrels played.
'Neath gleaming skies of cloudless blue;
Beyond the tropic's glare,
Where bright-eyed birds of rainbow hue
Float through the perfumed air;
By pictured scenes of former age;
In seats of ancient lore,
Where poet, painter, sculptor, sage
Illumined days of yore,
Recall that grand, familiar sight,
When heaven seems all ablaze
With floods of gold and purple light,--
Aurora's matchless rays.
And when, from black, dissonant sky
No stars may vigil keep;
When boisterous seas exult on high
And o'er the taffrail sweep,
Bethink thee of those days to be,
When floods shall swell no more;
Nor loud-voiced surge, nor angry sea
Shall break upon the shore.
Where white-winged storm shall never beat
Across the verdant plain;
Where severed lives, once more complete,
E'erlasting life shall gain.