" Days, when the ball of our vision Had eagles that flew unabashed to sun; When the grasp on the bow was decision, And arrow and hand and eye were one; When the Pleasures, like waves to a swimmer, Came heaving for rapture ahead!— Invoke them, they dwindle, they glimmer As lights over mounds of the dead. —GEORGE MEREDITH
“Ode to Youth in Memory "

― Raymond E. Feist , Shadow of a Dark Queen (The Serpentwar Saga, #1)