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Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

The Flight of Youth

By Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903)

THERE are gains for all our losses,

There are balms for all our pain:

But when youth, the dream, departs,

It takes something from our hearts,

And it never comes again.

We are stronger, and are better,

Under manhood’s sterner reign:

Still we feel that something sweet

Followed youth, with flying feet,

And will never come again.

Something beautiful is vanished,

And we sigh for it in vain:

We behold it everywhere,

On the earth, and in the air,

But it never comes again.