THE DREAM OF YOUTH.
Reading edition
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BY WM. P. BRANNAN.
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O give me back my dream of youth,
When every pulse throbbed wild and gay,
My heart’s sweet spring-time when life’s flowers
Bewildering bloomed along my way;
When all the world was Paradise,
And Pleasure held a sovereign sway;
When every change brought new delight,
And all the blessed year was May.
O give again those rapturous hours
When first my soul with beauty thrilled,
And mad with ecstasy I dared
To love, nor cared if loving killed
When every radiant face I saw
Flashed with enchantment on my brain,
Till earth seemed changing spheres with heaven;
O give to me that dream again.
Those aspirations for a fame
Immortal through all coming time;
That faith which soared on angel wings
From gladsome earth to heights sublime;
When every air a perfume breathed,
Melodious with the voice of song,
That swayed me with resistless power
And nerved my soul with purpose strong.
O give me back my boyhood’s dream,
Those gleams of glory from above,
That hope which grasped a deathless name,
And blest me with undying love;
O let me taste that joy again
Which riots in my thought to-day —
That earnest and exulting youth
When all the blessed year was May.