COME, PLAY ME THAT SIMPLE AIR AGAIN.

Come, play me that simple air again,

I used so to love, in life's young day,

And bring, if thou canst, the dreams that then

Were wakened by that sweet lay

The tender gloom its strain

Shed o'er the heart and brow

Grief's shadow without its pain —

Say where, where is it now?

But play me the well-known air once more,

For thoughts of youth still haunt its strain

Like dreams of some far, fairy shore

We never shall see again.

Sweet air, how every note brings back

Some sunny hope, some daydream bright,

That, shining o'er life's early track,

Filled even its tears with light.

The new-found life that came

With love's first echoed vow;—

The fear, the bliss, the shame —

Ah — where, where are they now?

But, still the same loved notes prolong,

For sweet‘ twere thus, to that old lay,

In dreams of youth and love and song,

To breathe life's hour away.