1.

Oh, when I was a tiny boy,

My days and nights were full of joy,

My mates were blithe and kind! —

No wonder that I sometimes sigh,

And dash the tear-drop from my eye,

To cast a look behind!
2.

A hoop was an eternal round

Of pleasure. In those days I found

A top a joyous thing; —

But now those past delights I drop,

My head, alas! is all my top,

And careful thoughts the string!
3.

My marbles — once my bag was stored —

Now I must play with Elgin’s lord,

With Theseus for a taw!

My playful horse has slipt his string,

Forgotten all his capering,

And harness’d to the law!
4.

My kite — how fast and far it flew!

Whilst I, a sort of Franklin, drew

My pleasure from the sky!

’Twas paper’d o’er with studious themes,

The tasks I wrote — my present dreams

Will never soar so high!
5.

My joys are wingless all and dead;

My dumps are made of more than lead; —

My flights soon find a fall;

My fears prevail, my fancies droop,

Joy never cometh with a hoop,

And seldom with a call!
6.

My football’s laid upon the shelf;

I am a shuttlecock myself

The world knocks to and fro; —

My archery is all unlearn’d,

And grief against myself has turn’d

My arrows and my bow!
7.

No more in noontide sun I bask;

My authorship’s an endless task,

My head’s ne’er out of school:

My heart is pain’d with scorn and slight,

I have too many foes to fight,

And friends grown strangely cool!
8.

The very chum that shared my cake

Holds out so cold a hand to shake,

It makes me shrink and sigh:—

On this I will not dwell and hang —

The changeling would not feel a pang

Though these should meet his eye!
9.

No skies so blue or so serene

As then; — no leaves look half so green

As clothed the playground tree!

All things I loved are altered so,
............