Love's Young Dream. Thomas Moore (1779-1852). VI. Lovers. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. II. Love

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904.

VI. Lovers

Love’s Young Dream

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)


From “Irish Melodies” O THE DAYS are gone when beauty bright
My heart’s chain wove!
When my dream of life, from morn till night,
Was love, still love!
New hope may bloom,	5
And days may come,
Of milder, calmer beam,
But there ’s nothing half so sweet in life
As love’s young dream!
O, there ’s nothing half so sweet in life	10
As love’s young dream!

Though the bard to purer fame may soar,
When wild youth ’s past;
Though he win the wise, who frowned before,
To smile at last;	15
He ’ll never meet
A joy so sweet
In all his noon of fame
As when first he sung to woman’s ear
His soul-felt flame,	20
And at every close she blushed to hear
The one loved name!

O, that hallowed form is ne’er forgot,
Which first love traced;
Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot	25
On memory’s waste!
’T was odor fled
As soon as shed;
’T was morning’s wingèd dream;
’T was a light that ne’er can shine again	30
On life’s dull stream!
O, ’t was a light that ne’er can shine again
On life’s dull stream!