| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Lament | | By Denis Florence Mac Carthy (1817–1882) |
| | | YOUTH’S bright palace | |
| Is overthrown, | |
| With its diamond sceptre | |
| And golden throne; | |
| As a time-worn stone | 5 |
| Its turrets are humbled— | |
| All hath crumbled | |
| But grief alone! | |
| |
| Whither, O whither | |
| Have fled away | 10 |
| The dreams and hopes | |
| Of my early day? | |
| Ruin’d and grey | |
| Are the towers I builded; | |
| And the beams that gilded— | 15 |
| Ah, where are they? | |
| |
| Once this world | |
| Was fresh and bright, | |
| With its golden noon | |
| And its starry night: | 20 |
| Glad and light, | |
| By mountain and river, | |
| Have I bless’d the Giver | |
| With hush’d delight. | |
| |
| Youth’s illusions | 25 |
| One by one | |
| Have pass’d like clouds | |
| That the sun look’d on. | |
| While morning shone, | |
| How purple their fringes! | 30 |
| How ashy their tinges | |
| When that was gone! | |
| |
| As fire-flies fade | |
| When the nights are damp— | |
| As meteors are quench’d | 35 |
| In a stagnant swamp— | |
| Thus Charlemagne’s camp | |
| Where the Paladins rally, | |
| And the Diamond valley, | |
| And the Wonderful Lamp, | 40 |
| |
| And all the wonders | |
| Of Ganges and Nile, | |
| And Haroun’s rambles, | |
| And Crusoe’s isle, | |
| And Princes who smile | 45 |
| On the Genii’s daughters | |
| ’Neath the Orient waters | |
| Full many a mile, | |
| |
| And all that the pen | |
| Of Fancy can write | 50 |
| Must vanish in manhood’s | |
| Misty light; | |
| Squire and Knight, | |
| And damosel’s glances, | |
| Sunny romances, | 55 |
| So pure and bright! | |
| |
| These have vanish’d, | |
| And what remains? | |
| Life’s budding garlands | |
| Have turn’d to chains— | 60 |
| Its beams and rains | |
| Feed but docks and thistles, | |
| And sorrow whistles | |
| O’er desert plains. | | | | |
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