A dark night. And half in shade

Of somber cedar trees, an old man stood

And gazed at heaven and its twinkling stars.

And long he looked and all his thoughts

Went back and back, retracing life

From early youth , up to the present

Where he stood, gazing at blackness,

And he said, "Time was, when in the sky

More shining stars were set and twinkling,

As well as in my own sky as that above.

But now they glimmer not so bright,

Or some are gone, and utter darkness

Seems to come, and life is nearly done.

There was a time when, ore stars shone than now.