1. Whenever longing called me to my first love
I found but sighs where once a heart would beat

2. And memory's ghosts within me still would rove
Gathering gifts and fragments, bitter-sweet.

3. I know not if time left me behind, or drove
My springtime off where seasons no more meet.

4. Or was it youth, a star that briefly glowed
Then set, while age stamped lines on my face?

5. Friends, would that what is over had but stayed
Would that the present were but days renewed!

6. You were my heart - now but an empty shade
And sighs are all the heart-place holds. Adieu!