O MEMORY, be sweet to me -- Take, take all else at will, So thou but leave me safe and sound, Without a token my heart to wound, The little house on the hill! Take all of best from east to west, So thou but leave me still The chamber, where in the starry light I used to lie awake at night And list to the whip-poor-will. Take violet-bed, and rose-tree red, And the purple flags by the mill, The meadow gay, and the garden-ground, But leave, oh leave me safe and sound The little house on the hill! The daisy-lane, and the dove's low plain And the cuckoo's tender bill, Take one and all, but leave the dreams That turned the rafters to golden beams, In the little house on the hill! The gables brown, they have tumbled down, And dry is the brook by the mill; The sheets I used with care to keep Have wrapt my dead for the last long sleep, In the valley, low and still. But, Memory, be sweet to me, And build the walls, at will, Of the chamber where I used to mark, So softly rippling over the dark, The song of the whip-poor-will! Ah, Memory, be sweet to me! All other fountains chill; But leave that song so weird and wild, Dear as its life to the heart of the child, In the little house on the hill! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VELLEN THE TREE by WILLIAM BARNES THE SOLITARY TOMB by BERNARD BARTON VERSES SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN IN A BURIAL-GROUND .. SOCIETY OF FRIENDS by BERNARD BARTON SUSPIRIA NOCTIS by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL AURORA LEIGH: BOOK 3 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE CANDLE OF THE LORD by ADA CAMBRIDGE |