"My birth-day"—what a different sound

  That word had in my youthful ears!

And how, each time the day comes round,

  Less and less white its mark appears!

"When first our scanty years are told,

It seems like pastime to grow old;

And as Youth counts the shining links

  That Time around him binds so fast,

Pleased with the task, he little thinks

  How hard that chain will press at last.

Vain was the man, and false as vain,

  Who said—"were he ordained to run

"His long career of life again,

  "He would do all that he had done."—

Ah, 'tis not thus the voice that dwells

  In sober birth-days speaks to me;

Far otherwise—of time it tells,

  Lavished unwisely, carelessly:

Of counsel mockt; of talents made

  Haply for high and pure designs,

But oft, like Israel's incense, laid

  Upon unholy, earthly shrines;

Of nursing many a wrong desire,

  Of wandering after Love too far,

And taking every meteor fire

  That crost my pathway, for his star.—

All this it tells, and, could I trace

  The imperfect picture o'er again.

With power to add, retouch, efface

  The lights and shades, the joy and pain,

How little of the past would stay!

How quickly all should melt away—

All—but that Freedom of the Mind

  Which hath been more than wealth to me;

Those friendships, in my boyhood twined,

  And kept till now unchangingly,

And that dear home, that saving ark,

  Where Love's true light at last I've found,

Cheering within, when all grows dark

  And comfortless and stormy round!