Explore "Hours of Childhood" by Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Blest hours of childhood! then, and then alone, / Dance we the revels gay round pleasure's throne."
Dear cherished hours, how much ye tell / Of all we've known, and loved so well!
On memory's page there is a leaf, / Bearing a trace of pleasures brief; / Of schoolday mirth, of pastime gay, / With which we whiled those hours away.
And those we loved in early youth, / With all the fervency of truth --
They seem to live, and pass us by, / With laughing lip and beaming eye.
Each favorite spot, each winding stream, / Where we have watched the bright sunbeam, / Appears at memory's magic spell --
And joys, to which we bid farewell.
When grief and bliss are in the train / Of hours we ne'er shall live again; / When sorrow clouds our after years, / And fills our cup with bitter tears; / 'Tis then we wait a sigh to ye / O by-gone days of memory.