WHEN I WAS TWENTY-ONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 921, 24 July 1869, Page 16

WHEN I WAS TWENTY-ONE.

, (Translated from Beranger by Thackeray.) With pensive eyes the little room I view,' Where in my youth I weathered it so long, - With a wild nmtreßS, a staunch friend or two, And a light heart still breaking into aong ; Making a mock of life and all its cares, Rich in the glory, of my rising sun, Lightly 1 vaulted up four pair of stairs, ; In the brave days when I was twenty-one. Yes j 'tis a garret— let him know*t who willThere was my bed— full hard it was sad small, My table there— and I decipher still Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall. Ye joys that Time has swept with him away Cotne to mine eves, ye dreams of love and fun, For you I pawned my watch how many * day, In the brave days when I was twenty-one. And see my little Jessy, first of all ; She comes with pouting lips and sparkling eyes: Behold how roguishly she pins her shawl Across her narrow casement,', curtain-wis© ; And by the bed her petticoat glides down, And when did woman look the worse in none ? I have heard since who paid for many a gown, In the brave days when I was twenty-ono. One jolly evening when my friends and I Made happy music with our songs and cheers, A shout of triumph mounted up thus high, A. distant cannon opened on our ears : We rise-'-we join in the triumphant strain — Napoleon conquers — Außterlitz is won, — Tyrants shall never tread us down again, In the brave days when I was twenty-one. Let us begone— the place 1b sod and strangeHow far, far off these happy times appear! All that I have to live I'd gladly change For one such month as I have wasted here ; To draw long dreams of beauty, love, and power From founts of hope that never will outrun, And drink all life's quintessence in an hour, Give me the days when I was twenty-one I