Stanzas For Music: They Say That Hope Is Happiness

They say that Hope is happiness; But genuine Love must prize the past, And Memory wakes the thoughts that bless: They rose the first–they set the last; And all that Memory loves the most Was once our only Hope to be, And all that Hope adored and lost Hath melted into Memory. Alas it is delusion all: The future cheats us from afar, Nor can we be what we recall, Nor dare we think on what we are.