Song.

Joy came in youth as a humming-bird,

( Sing hey! for the honey and bloom of life! )

And it made a home in my summer bower

With the honeysuckle and the sweet-pea flower.

( Sing hey! for the blossoms and sweets of life! )

Joy came as a lark when the years had gone,

( Ah! hush, hush still, for the dream is short! )

And I gazed far up to the melting blue

Where the rare song dropped like a golden dew.

( Ah! sweet is the song tho’ the dream be short! )

Joy hovers now in a far-off mist,

( The night draws on and the air breathes snow! )

And I reach, sometimes, with a trembling hand

To the red-tipped cloud of the joy-bird's land.

( Alas! for the days of the storm and the snow! )