Thou bidst me sing the lay I sung to thee
In other days ere joy had left this brow;
But think, tho’ still unchanged the notes may be,
How different feels the heart that breathes them now!
The rose thou wearst to-night is still the same
We saw this morning on its stem so gay;
But, ah! that dew of dawn, that breath which came
Like life o'er all its leaves, hath past away.
Since first that music touched thy heart and mine,
How many a joy and pain o'er both have past,—
The joy, a light too precious long to shine,—
The pain, a cloud whose shadows always last.
And tho’ that lay would like the voice of home
Breathe o'er our ear,‘ twould waken now a sigh —
Ah! not, as then, for fancied woes to come,
But, sadder far, for real bliss gone by.