TIS a dull sight To see the year dying, When winter winds Set the yellow wood sighing: Sighing, O sighing! When such a time cometh I do retire Into an old room Beside a bright fire: O, pile a bright fire! And there I sit Reading old things, Of knights and lorn damsels, While the wind sings -- O, drearily sings! I never look out Nor attend to the blast; For all to be seen Is the leaves falling fast: Falling, falling! But close at the hearth, Like a cricket, sit I, Reading of summer And chivalry -- Gallant chivalry! Then with an old friend I talk of our youth -- How 'twas gladsome, but often Foolish, forsooth: But gladsome, gladsome! Or, to get merry, We sing some old rhyme That made the wood ring again In summer time -- Sweet summer time! Then go we smoking, Silent and snug: Naught passes between us, Save a brown jug -- Sometimes! And sometimes a tear Will rise in each eye, Seeing the two old friends So merrily -- So merrily! And ere to bed Go we, go we, Down on the ashes We kneel on the knee, Praying together! Thus, then, live I Till, 'mid all the gloom, By Heaven! the bold sun Is with me in the room Shining, shining! Then the clouds part, Swallows soaring between; The spring is alive, And the meadows are green! I jump up like mad, Break the old pipe in twain, And away to the meadows, The meadows again! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AMOR MUNDI by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE MORAL FABLES: THE LION AND THE MOUSE by AESOP THE TWO ARCHERS by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES PACK-TRIP SUITE by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT SMATTERERS by SAMUEL BUTLER (1612-1680) CREOLE SLAVE SONG: CRIOLE CANDJO by GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE |