I am not what I was—the time’s gone by

When, bright and cloudless as the summer’s sky,

My day of life began;

When all was music to my raptured ear,

And, bounding onward, without grief or fear,

Eager my course I ran.

I am not what I was—the sense of youth,

And hope, and joyous feeling, and the truth

Of earth, hath passed away;

The heart that once throbbed high with health and life

Beats faint and wearied with the ceaseless strife

Which there has held its sway.