To Youth

Where art thou gone, light-ankled Youth?   With wing at either shoulder, And smile that never left thy mouth   Until the Hours grew colder: Then some one seemed to whisper near   That thou and I must part; I doubted it; I felt no fear,   No weight upon the heart. If aught befell it, Love was by   And rolled it off again; So, if there ever was a sigh,   ’T was not a sigh of pain. I may not call thee back; but thou   Returnest when the hand Of gentle Sleep waves o’er my brow   His poppy-crested wand; Then smiling eyes bend over mine,   Then lips once pressed invite; But sleep hath given a silent sign,   And both, alas! take flight.