SILENT and sunny was the way <br />Where Youth and I danced on together: <br />So winding and embowered o'er, <br />We could not see one rood before. <br />Nevertheless all merrily <br />We bounded onward, Youth and I, <br />Leashed closely in a silken tether: <br />(Well-a-day, well-a-day!) <br />Ah Youth, ah Youth, but I would fain <br />See thy sweet foolish face again! <br /> <br />It came to pass, one morn of May, <br />All in a swoon of golden weather, <br />That I through green leaves fluttering <br />Saw Joy uprise on Psyche wing: <br />Eagerly, too eagerly <br />We followed after,--Youth and I,-- <br />Till suddenly he slipped the tether: <br />(Well-a-day, well-a-day!) <br />'Where art thou, Youth?' I cried. In vain; <br />He never more came back again. <br /> <br />Yet onward through the devious way <br />In rain or shine, I recked not whether, <br />Like many other maddened boy <br />I tracked my Psyche-wingèd Joy; <br />Till, curving round the bowery lane, <br />Lo,--in the pathway stood pale Pain, <br />And we met face to face together: <br />(Well-a-day, well-a-day!) <br />'Whence comest thou?'--and I writhed in vain-- <br />'Unloose thy cruel grasp, O Pain!' <br /> <br />But he would not. Since, day by day <br />He has ta'en up Youth's silken tether <br />And changed it into iron bands. <br />So through rich vales and barren lands <br />Solemnly, all solemnly, <br />March we united, he and I; <br />And we have grown such friends together <br />(Well-a-day, well-a-day!) <br />I and this my brother Pain, <br />I think we'll never part again.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-fable-8/
