THE DREAMS OF YOUTH.

POETRY BY CHARLES MACKAY.

ACCOMPANIMENTS BY SIR H. R. BISHOP.

Air “Pray, Goody, PLEASE TO MODERATE.”

Oh! youth’s fond dreams, like eve ’ning skies,

Are tinged with colours bright,

Their cloud-built halls and turrets rise

In lines of ling’ ring light;

Airy, fairy,

In the beam they glow,

As if they’d last

Thro’ ev’ry blast

That angry fate might blow;

But Time wears on with stealthy pace

And robes of solemn grey.

And in the shadow of her face

The glories fade away.

But not in vain the splendours die,

For worlds before unseen

Rise on the forehead of the sky

Unchanging and serene.

Gleaming,—streaming,

Thro’ the dark they shew

Their lustrous forms

Above the storms

That rend our earth below.

So pass the visions of our youth

In Time’s advancing shade;

Yet ever more the stars of Truth

Shine brighter when they fade.

GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.

Vol. XLI. PHILADELPHIA, November, 1852. No. 5.