Melville poem Lost Youth in the Christian Register

Retitled "Lost Youth," a version of Herman Melville's poem "C——'s Lament" from Timoleon, Etc. (1891) appeared in the Unitarian Christian Register for November 8, 1900. Then edited by ordained Unitarian minister George Batchelor (1836-1923), The Christian Register was a prominent weekly newspaper published in Boston by the American Unitarian Association.

This is basically the same version later reprinted in the Springfield MA Republican on June 13, 1909, as documented in the previous Melvilliana post Lost Youth. 

Christian Register - November 8, 1900

Lost Youth. 

How lovely was the light of heaven,
What angels leaned from out the sky
     In years when youth was more than wine
     And man and nature seemed divine,
Ere yet I felt that youth must die!

Ere yet I felt that youth must die,
How insubstantial looked the earth!
     Aladdin-land! in each advance,
     Or here or there, a new romance:
I never dreamed would come a dearth. 

And nothing then but had its worth,
Even pain. Yes, pleasures still and pain
     In quick reaction made of life
     A lovers' quarrel, happy strife
In youth that never comes again.

But will youth never come again?
Even to his grave-bed has he gone,
     And left me lone to wake by night
     With heavy heart that erst was light?
I lay it at his head,—a stone!

-- Herman Melville.

A digitized version of Christian Register volume 79 with Melville's poem "Lost Youth" is accessible courtesy of the HathiTrust Digital Library.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015080394300?urlappend=%3Bseq=1247

Related post:

• Lost Youth
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2021/05/lost-youth.html