Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN DAYS GONE BY, by LILLA CABOT PERRY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN DAYS GONE BY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In days gone by when you were here
Last Line: In days gone by!
Subject(s): Hunger; Memory; Past; Time


IN days gone by when you were here
I little heeded what you said;
I watched the skies above me clear,
I listened to the thrush instead.

To this same spot my feet are led
By thoughts of you another year;
The self-same pine tree rose o'erhead
In days gone by when you were here.

Their slender forms to-day they rear
Aloft in the same beauty spread,
But ah! The thrush's song I fear! —
I little heeded what you said.

And now, as starving man for bread,
I'd spring to catch one word of cheer,
Yet when with love my heart you fed
I watched the skies above me clear!

Once more on the same pine leaves, sere
And fragrant 'neath the summer's tread,
I lie and think with many a tear,
"I listened to the thrush instead!"

I listened to the thrush instead,
Yet could I now one accent hear
Of that loved voice forever fled! . . .
I knew not that you were so dear
In days gone by!





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