Joy came in youth as a humming-bird,
( Sing hey! for the honey and bloom of life! )
And it made a home in my summer bower
With the honeysuckle and the sweet-pea flower.
( Sing hey! for the blossoms and sweets of life! )
Joy came as a lark when the years had gone,
( Ah! hush, hush still, for the dream is short! )
And I gazed far up to the melting blue
Where the rare song dropped like a golden dew.
( Ah! sweet is the song tho’ the dream be short! )
Joy hovers now in a far-off mist,
( The night draws on and the air breathes snow! )
And I reach, sometimes, with a trembling hand
To the red-tipped cloud of the joy-bird's land.
( Alas! for the days of the storm and the snow! )