Slowly I smoke and hug my knee,
The while a witless masquerade
Of things that only children see
Floats in a mist of light and shade:
They pass, a flimsy cavalcade,
And with a weak, remindful glow,
The falling embers break and fade,
As one by one the phantoms go.
Then, with a melancholy glee
To think where once my fancy strayed,
I muse on what the years may be
Whose coming tales are all unsaid,
The juxtaposition of melancholy and glee, one being an senseless feeling of pensive sadness and the other being pure delight, is representative of the way that circumstances can drastically change. Time changes perception and can make things that were once bad good and vice versa.
Ballade by the Fire