Question

a poem by Thomas Campbell

Answer 1

The more we live, more brief appear
Our life's succeeding stages; 
A day to childhood seems a year, 
And years like passing ages.

The gladsome current of our youth, 
Ere passion yet disorders, 
Steals lingering like a river smooth 
Along its grassy borders.

But as the careworn cheek grows wan, 
And sorrow's shafts fly thicker, 
Ye stars, that measure life to man, 
Why seem your courses quicker? 

When joys have lost their bloom and breath, 
And life itself is vapid, 
Why, as we reach the Falls of Death 
Feel we its tide more rapid?

It may be strange—yet who would change 
Time's course to slower speeding,
When one by one our friends have gone, 
And left our bosoms bleeding?

Heaven gives our years of fading strength 
Indemnifying fleetness; 
And those of youth, a seeming length, 
Proportion'd to their sweetness. 

Answer 2

Hope
At summer eve, when heaven's aerial bow 
Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below, 
Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, 
Whose sunbright summit mingles with the sky? 
Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear 
More sweet than all the landscape smiling near? - 
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, 
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

by thomas campbell