  In vain we call to youth, "Return!" In vain to fires, "Waste not, yet burn!" In vain to all life's happy things, "Give the days song—give the hours wings! Let us lose naught—yet always learn!" The tongue must lose youth, as it sings— New knowledge still new sorrow brings: Oh, sweet lost youth, for which we yearn In vain! But even this hour from which ye turn— Impatient—o'er its funeral urn Your soul with mad importunings Will cry, "Come back, lost hour!" So rings Ever the cry of those who yearn In vain. E. Nesbit. |
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