Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD FAITH TO THE CONVERTS, by FORD MADOX FORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD FAITH TO THE CONVERTS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When the world is growing older
Last Line: But we—we shall never return.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hueffer, Ford Hermann; Hueffer, Ford Madox
Subject(s): Conversion; Faith; Belief; Creed


"WHEN the world is growing older,
And the road leads down and down and down,
And the wind is in the bare tree-tops
And the meadows sodden with much rain,
Seek me here in the old places,
And here, where I dwell, you shall find me,"
Says the old Faith we are leaving.

"When the muscles stiffen,
Eyes glaze, ears lose their keenness,
When the mind loses its familiar nimbleness,
And the tongue no longer voices it, speeds before it, follows it,
Seek me here in the old places,
And here, where I have always dwelt, you shall find me,"
Says the old Faith we are leaving.

"I shall not watch your going down the road,
Not even to the turning at the hill,
Not for me to hear you greet the strange women,
Not for me to see them greet you.
They shall be many and many the houses you shall
enter, but never shall house be like to mine,"
Says the old Faith we are leaving.

"You shall hear strange new songs,
But never song like the one I sing by your pillow;
You shall breathe strange new scents,
But never scent like that of the herbs I strew 'mid the linen.
Go! I give you time to make holiday,
Travel, travel, fare into far countries,
But you shall come back again to the old places,
And here, where I have always dwelt, you shall find me,"
Says the old Faith we are leaving.
But we—we shall never return.





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