A Lament.

O world! O life! O time!
On whose last steps I climb,
      Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
         No more—Oh, never more!

   Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight;
      Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar,
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
         No more—Oh, never more!

~Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792—1822~