Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 011.djvu/67

Like grey Time bent over Beauty's decay,
She gazed in her night of age
On him whom she loved in the early day
Of her old life's pilgrimage—
She gazed with worn cheek, and with sight weak and dim,
On her lover unchanged in years or limb.

He was as he parted when they met last,
Though fifty long years were gone,
And he lookd not as if an hour had past
Since they talk'd in the moonlight alone
Of their fondness and passion, their joys and their fears,
And counted on bliss in this valley of tears.

They parted in promise, and met no more—
While none the fate of his youth;
She had travell'd life's ocean almost to the shore
With the dream of their plighted truth;
'Twas was all that remain'd to enliven her lot,
But half of its charm was now rased or forgot.

And she was decrepid and palsied, while he,
Save the power of breathing her name,
Seem'd fresh in his young immortality,
And the vigour and grace of his frame;
His limbs were firm, and his locks of jet
Lay on his temples unsilver'd yet.

Oh was he the same! yes, the form was there,
That form she had loved so well;
But her trembling dotage no more can share
What alone with young years must dwell—
The affection of first love's heavenly glow—
The thrilling kiss from the heart's overflow.

These were not for her, they were long since dead,
As he that recall'd them now—
But though life from his heart had for fifty years fled,
It still warm'd her own old brow—
And could he revive, he would turn him away
From a tottering remnant of life in decay.

She was almost pleased that he did not live,
Since for her he could never be—
Thus the last of age may some likeness give
Of a first love's jealousy:
Though the fragrance and bloom of the flower be gone,
It still asks to be valued and look'd upon.

Over her dead love she gazed on her crutches bent,
And thought of her youthful prime;
And her shrunk heart many a keen sigh sent
Back to the ancient time;
And a tear from a fount that had long been dry
Crept forth as she bade the young corse 'good-bye.'