Our Sussex Downs

My youth is gone- my youth that laughed and yawned

In one sweet breath, will not come again;

And crumbs of wonder are my scanty fare,

Snatched from the beauty on a hill or plain.

So, as I look, I wonder if the land

Has breathed those shadows in the waters blue!

From all first sounds I half expect to hear,

Not only echoes, but their echoes too.

But when I see- the first time in my life-

Our Sussex Downs, so mighty, strong and bare

That many a wood of fifteen hundred trees

Seems but a handful scattered lightly there-

“What a great hour,” think I, “halfway ‘twixt Death

And Youth that laughs and yawns in one short breath.”