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A Generation (1917)

Topics: classic

There was a time that's gone         And will not come again,         We knew it was a pleasant time,         How good we never dreamed.         When, for a whimsy's sake,         We'd even play with pain,         For everything awaited us         And life immortal seemed.         It seemed unending then         To forward-looking eyes,         No thought of what postponement meant         Hung dark across our mirth;         We had years and strength enough         For any enterprise,         Our numerous companionship         Were heirs to all the earth.         But now all memory         Is one ironic truth,         We look like strangers at the boys         We were so long ago;         For half of us are dead,         And half have lost their youth,         And our hearts are scarred by many griefs,         That only age should know.

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"There was a time that's gone..."

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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