Ah! where are hours departed fled? <br />Is life a dream, or true indeed? <br />Did all my heart hath fashioned <br />From fancy's visitings proceed? <br />Yes! I have slept; and now unknown <br />To me the things best known before: <br />The land, the people, once mine own, <br />Where are they? -- they are here no more: <br />My boyhood's friends, all aged, worn, <br />Despoil'd the woods, the fields, of home, <br />Only the stream flows on forlorn; <br />(Alas! that e'er such change should come!) <br />And he knew me once so well <br />Salutes me now as one estranged: <br />The very earth to me can tell <br />Of nought but things perverted, changed: <br />And when I muse on other days, <br />That pass'd me as the dashing oars <br />The surface of the ocean raise, <br />Ceaseless my heart its fate deplores; <br />&c.<br /><br />Walther von der Vogelweide<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ah-where-are-hours-departed-fled-excerpt/
