OH! scenes of my childhood, and dear to my heart, Ye green waving woods on the margin of Cart, How blest in the morning of life I have strayed, By the stream of the vale and the grass-covered glade! Then, then every rapture was young and sincere, Ere the sunshine of bliss was bedimmed by a tear, And a sweeter delight every scene seemed to lend, That the mansion of peace was the home of a FRIEND. Now the scenes of my childhood, and dear to my heart, All pensive I visit, and sigh to depart; Their flowers seem to languish, their beauty to cease, For a @3stranger@1 inhabits the mansion of peace. But hushed be the sigh that untimely complains, While Friendship and all its enchantment remains, While it blooms like the flower of a winterless clime, Untainted by chance, unabated by time. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SOLDIER GOING TO THE FIELD by WILLIAM DAVENANT THE VISION (1) by ROBERT HERRICK WHITE FIELDS by JAMES STEPHENS SHEEP AND LAMBS by KATHARINE TYNAN THE LEPRECAUN, OR THE FAIRY SHOEMAKER by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SONG; IN IMITATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S 'BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND' by JAMES BEATTIE |