DEDICATION

TO THE

HON. FRANCIS C. GRAY.

CLASSMATE AND FRIEND! if haply, in these lays,

Thine eye discern the forms that yet remain

of years long past, - youth's pleasure and its pain, Its hopes, fears, studies, — thine applause repays

Largely the poet's labour : so he gain

Thy kind approval of his humble strain, He heeds not, then, the cold indifferent gaze

Of distant strangers. Feelings that outlive Long absence, toil, and strife, mid haunts of men,

Still to this breast their youthful ardour give, By time unchanged. Accept his offering then,

Who seeks not now vain blazon of renown; So health be his and leisure, book and pen, And friendship’s generous wreath his brows to crown.

YOUTH

1

OR

SCENES FROM THE PAST,

A SERIES OF POEMS.

INTRODUCTION.

My sun is past its zenith; and the blaze,

That burned so brightly in youth's glowing skies,

Is tempered now, by swelling clouds that rise,
In life's decline, to shade his parting rays.
What marvel if, at times, remembrance strays

Back to those scenes, whose living image lies,

Mid dews of morn and bloom that never dies, In sunshine pure of life's first balmy days.

Youth - childhood - infancy - before my sight

Successive rise, in colours clear as bright; Thence ripening into manhood's sober hues,

Come milder forms, whose mellow tints presage,

Not undesired, those softening shades of age, Which closing day must o’er the scene diffuse.

CONTENTS.

Infancy-Sincerity-Early Impressions—Imagination-My Mother-
The Love of Nature-My Native Place-Leaving Home for School-
The boy Tyrant—The Latin Grammar-End of the Term--Vacation
The Play Ground— The Swimmer-The Snow Fort-Skating — The
Swamscot-Improvement-Study—The Languages---History-Politics
-Dinah-Love-Schoolboy Passion-Ambition-Farewell to Exeter
- The Abbot Jubilee.

YOU T II

OR

SCENES FROM THE PAST.

BOOK FIRST.

INFANCY.

I.

Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs.

COLERIDGE.

Fain would my wandering steps retrace the stream

Back to its source, and, at the fountain, see

The springs of life, in hours of infancy, And childhood's joys. Scarce memory can redeem, From time, faint glimpses of that early dream,

When young existence, full of life and glee,

Mid sounds of gladness on the parent's knee, From kindred looks saw joy's bright image beam;

The father's love, the mother's fond caress,

With smiles repaid of infant happiness.
The simplest toy could rapture then supply;

Bell, ring, or whistle, ball or top, each threw
Its charm alike, on ravished ear or eye,
Where all seemed beautiful, for all was new.