I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful schooldays; All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I have been laughing, I have been carousing, Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies; All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I loved a Love once, fairest among women: Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her, -- All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man: Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces. Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, Seeking to find the old familiar faces. Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling? So might we talk of the old familiar faces. How some they have died, and some they have left me, And some are taken from me; all are departed; All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TIME AND THE PERFUME RIVER by KAREN SWENSON OH YOU ARE COMING by SARA TEASDALE A WIFE IN LONDON by THOMAS HARDY THE SEVEN OLD MEN; TO VICTOR HUGO by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE HOUSE AT EVENING by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE VISION by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE RISE, GLORIOUS CONQUEROR! RISE by MATTHEW BRIDGES |