POETRY.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 183, 9 January 1875, Page 3

POETRY.

LOOKING BACK. The cypress with the myrtle twines; The sweet grows bitter at the core ; ; The summer sun no longer shines ,j In cloudless splendour as of yore ; The shadows mingle with the light; the day wears onward to the night. My heart is wedded to regret; I sing the songs of other years ; My fairest page of life is wet with sorrowful, despairing tears -f< >. I mourn the dear departed days, the light ; and love in all my ways. • . i Through golden vistas looking back, One hour let me review the scene ; , Let brief, bright sunshine gild the track Of dark and barren days between; One hour let me forget my pain, and live in lost delight again ! ' V The dream of bliss dispels my gloom: -; Again we tread the pathway wide _ That winds through fields of waving bloom And curves along the river-side ; The lark soars singing out of view to summer skies of sapphire bluet f ■'■• And in his eyes of love I look, .... , : And wander in my happy dream .... i Where branches trail above the brook To glass their blossoms in the stream; I hear*, where minstrel birds rejoice, the sweeter musict «£ his voice 1 , : Where hedgerows tall on either side Festoon with flowers the leafy lane; Wbere glancing, rays of glory glide, • We saunter, arm in arm, again; ' * Or, stretched beneath some spreading.tree, he reads the rare romance to me. Such dreams must vanish in an hour; The voice falls fainter on my ear ; The petals flutter from the flower; The fleeting visions disappear ; The fire burns down to ashes gray ? the weary night succeeds the day. Ah ! when I walk in starless ways. When tempests toss my shuddering bark, Say, will the friend of former days Reach hands of comfort through the dark ? Alas ! no light illumes the gloom : no voice makes answer from the tomb ! He may not whisper to my heart Those words of love I sadly miss: More sweet than are the tears that start In happy eyes that weep for bliss : Alas ! the tears of anguish dim the eyes that weep in vain for him I