Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHRISTMAS LONG AGO, by ANNE H. WOODRUFF


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHRISTMAS LONG AGO, by                    
First Line: Long, long ago! Oh, heart of youth unheeding
Last Line: Another christmas night.
Subject(s): Christmas; Happiness; Memory; Singing & Singers; Nativity, The; Joy; Delight


LONG, long ago! oh, heart of youth unheeding,
As speed the years with love and light aglow,
And like a dream in memory receding,
They swiftly, softly go.

Ah! when the intervening clouds are lifted —
The misty veil that hides them from my sight!
Then bygone scenes beneath the curtain rifted
Gleam fair, as now — to-night.

There is the dear old room, the firelight shining
On little stockings ranged in careful row;
Hung by the anxious owners, hope inclining,
On Christmas long ago.

In trundle bed and cot each fitful sleeper
Is dream-disturbed and tosses to and fro
Till lost in slumber, sinking deeper, deeper,
With happiness aglow.

What gleeful shouts and laughter wake the morning!
The "Merry Christmas" greetings linger sweet
In heart and brain, the misty past adorning,
The picture to complete.

Each stocking yields its precious, trifling treasures,
To curly pate and tot with hair of tow;
Ah, happy days! that saw such simple pleasures
Such happiness bestow.

With merry jest and quip and cheery chatter,
In converse sweet and songs melodious flow,
Till borne in state, embellishing the platter,
The turkey enters slow.

A glad home-coming time for ones world-weary,
To feast beneath the mystic mistletoe,
Where Love stood at the door with welcome cheery,
On Christmas long ago.

Oh, father, mother! names that leave me never,
Thy faces follow me through weal and woe,
As loving, sweet, and true as smiled they ever,
On Christmas long ago.

In vain I try the rising sobs to smother,
My heart repressed so long asserts her right
To tardy tears, to there await another,
Another Christmas night.





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