Robert Silliman Hillyer - "There was a boy in some forgotten spring" lyrics

There was a boy in some forgotten spring Who fled from all his comrades at the school, And in the hills beside a forest pool Lay on the gra**, watching, and listening. And as he listened, melancholy delight Stirred in his heart a pang he did not know, And voices of new pa**ion bade him write Of the vague thoughts that shook his spirit so. Now on the battlefield of later times, I meet those dreams returning in the forms Of mighty friends and foes amid the strife; And reading those imperfect boyish rhymes, I hear through the blown dust of many storms The hymns of the advance-guard of my life.