The Changing Year, Poems and Pictures of Life and Nature (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...rather rest, Believing what has been was best The life whose sun has not yet set Can find no room for vain regret, And only folly crowns as queen Its Might-have-been G. W. 5 T might have been When life is young, 'And hopes are bright, and hearts are strong To battle with the heartless throng, When youth and age are far between, Who heeds the words so sadly sung?--It might have been It might have been When life is fair, Youth stands beside the boundless sea That ebbs and flows unceasingly, And dreams of name and golden fame; And who shall limit the To-be That's dawning there? It might have been When life is bright, And love is in its golden prime, Youth recks not of the coming night, Nor dreams that there may be a time When love will fail, or change, or die Eternally It might have been When time grows grey, And spring-tide's hopes have passed away, Old age looks back on by-gone years--Their many wants, and doubts, and fears--And through the mist a way is seen: The Might-have-been It might have been When age is sad, Weary of waiting for the fame That after all is but a name, When life has lost the charm it had, True knowledge makes regret more keen--It might have been ROUND the rocky coast the seagulls fly, And dart upon their victims in the deep; Round marsh and mere the owls and vultures keep Their anxious watch; and, from his home on high, The eagle swoops like lightning from the sky, And bears earth's sweetest songsters to his nest: So prey the birds with eager, pitiless zest, And harvest wheresoever they may reap. And we, too have rapacious birds of prey, Who flaunt their cruelties in our midst, and show No pity for the weak--or friend or foe; Who've parted from sweet mercy many a day, Yet dare not, cannot, echo the birds' cry That they must p...