THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK

Love and Age

T PLAY'D with you 'mid cowslips blowing,

• When I was six and you were four;

When garlands weaving, flower-balls throwing,

Were pleasures soon to please no more. Through groves and meads, o'er grass and heather,

With little playmates, to and fro, We wander'd hand in hand together;

But that was sixty years ago.

You grew a lovely roseate maiden,

And still our early love was strong; Still with no care our days were laden,

They glided joyously along; And I did love you very dearly,

How dearly words want power to show, I thought your heart was touch'd as nearly ;

But that was fifty years ago.

Then other lovers came around you,

Your beauty grew from year to year, And many a splendid circle found you

The centre of its glittering sphere. I saw you then, first vows forsaking,

On rank and wealth your hand bestow; O, then I thought my heart was breaking!

But that was forty years ago.

And I lived on, to wed another:

No cause she gave me to repine;

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