"'Tis Pleasant to Be Young" (1852)
Ballad
Composed for his friend
J. Q. Weatherbee
by
William Vincent Wallace, 1812-1865

New York: William Hall & Son, 239 Broadway
Plate No. 2064
[Source: 692000@LoC]

1. 
A boy amid the blossoms play’d, 
With rosy lip and golden curl; 
He lay beneath their fragrant shade, 
And listen’d to the streamlet’s purl. 
And while he wove a garland fair, 
His childish accents sweetly rung, 
Upon the breeze that stir’d his hair,— 
’Tis pleasant, ’tis pleasant to be young, 
Ah! ’tis pleasant, ’tis pleasant to be young. 

2. 
Youth fled away— the snows of age
Were sprinkled on his locks of gold;
And on his forehead’s truthful page,
The tales of dreary years were told.
That careless scene return’d again,
And ’mid his tears the Old man sung,
As thought flash’d back o’er years of pain—
’Tis pleasant, ’tis pleasant to be young,
Ah! ’tis pleasant, ’tis pleasant to be young.