A GENERATION ( 1917 )

There was a time that's gone

And will not come again,

We knew it was a pleasant time,

How good we never dreamed.

When, for a whimsy's sake,

We'd even play with pain,

For everything awaited us

And life immortal seemed.

It seemed unending then

To forward-looking eyes,

No thought of what postponement meant

Hung dark across our mirth;

We had years and strength enough

For any enterprise,

Our numerous companionship

Were heirs to all the earth.

But now all memory

Is one ironic truth,

We look like strangers at the boys

We were so long ago;

For half of us are dead,

And half have lost their youth,

And our hearts are scarred by many griefs,

That only age should know.