Sweet sister, if you knew, like me, <br />The charms of guileless infancy, <br />No more you'd envy riper years, <br />Or smiles, more bitter than your tears. <br /> <br />But childhood passes in an hour, <br />As perfume from a faded flower; <br />The joyous voice of early glee <br />Flies, like the Halcyon, o'er the sea. <br /> <br />Enjoy your morn of early Spring; <br />Soon time maturer thoughts must bring; <br />Those hours, like flowers that interclimb, <br />Should not be withered ere their time. <br /> <br />Too soon you'll weep, as we do now, <br />O'er faithless friend, or broken vow, <br />And hopeless sorrows, which our pride <br />In pleasure's whirl would vainly hide. <br /> <br />Laugh on! unconscious of thy doom, <br />All innocence and opening bloom; <br />Laugh on! while yet thine azure eye <br />Mirrors the peace that reigns on high.<br /><br />Victor Marie Hugo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sweet-sister-2/
