Birth-day Song

Katrinah! feel you not with me
     Our years are hurrying on,
And that the sparkle of life’s cup
     For evermore is gone?
Already hath the share of Time
     Marked deeply on my brow
The furrow that too plainly tells
     That youth is over now.
My locks, which once were darkly brown,
     Grow grisly now and thin;
Old Age comes stealthily along—
     The thievish mannikin!—
And in my face he shakes his paw
     As he is gliding by,
And snatchers with his felon-hand
     The lustre from my eye!

The honey-moon of life is past—
     Our days of fun are over—
We may not tread the dance again,
     The loved one and the lover!
So, soberly and quietly
     We’ll sit and count the hours,
Nor deem that we are roving still
     Amid life’s early flowers.
We plucked the blossoms long ago,
     And scattered to the wind
Their shattered leaves all recklessly,
     Nor left a bud behind!
Well—let them go! if we have walked
     O’er green and flowery lawns,
Oh, let us murmur not, though now
     Our path is thick with thorns!

How brimming was the revel-cup
     We lifted to our lip
In early time—but, oh! how brief
     Our spirits’ fellowship
With sunny hours, and bursting flowers,
     And Eden-colored things!
How quickly came the dimness o’er
     Our bright imaginings!
The sunlight hath departed,
     And the tempest broodeth now
Above our path! I fear it not—
     Katrinah! fearest thou?
Nay, let it burst!—for we have lived
     Till Life’s delights are gone—
And what on earth should tempt us now
     To love and linger on?