Do you remember all the sunny places, Where in bright days, long past, we play'd together? Do you remember all the old home faces That gather'd round the hearth in wintry weather? Do you remember all the happy meetings, In Summer evenings round the open door -- Kind looks, kind hearts, kind words and tender greetings, And clasping hands whose pulses beat no more? Do you remember them? Do you remember all the merry laughter; The voices round the swing in our old garden: The dog that, when we ran, still follow'd after; The teazing frolic sure of speedy pardon: We were but children @3then@1, young happy creatures, And hardly knew how much we had to lose -- But @3now@1 the dreamlike memory of those features Comes back, and bids my darken'd spirit muse. Do you remember them? Do you remember when we first departed From all the old companions who were round us, How very soon again we grew light-hearted, And talk'd with smiles of all the links which bound us? And after, when our footsteps were returning, With unfelt weariness, o'er hill and plain; How our young hearts kept boiling up, and burning, To think how soon we'd be at home again, Do you remember this? Do you remember how the dreams of glory Kept fading from us like a fairy treasure; How we thought less of being famed in story, And more of those to whom our fame gave pleasure. Do you remember in far countries, weeping, When a light breeze, a flower, hath brought to mind Old happy thoughts, which till that hour were sleeping, And made us yearn for those we left behind? Do you remember this? Do you remember when no sound woke gladly, But desolate echoes through our home were ringing, How for a while we talk'd -- then paused full sadly, Because our voices bitter thoughts were bringing? Ah me! those days -- those days! my friend, my brother, Sit down, and let us talk of all our wo, For we have nothing left but one another; -- Yet where @3they@1 went, old playmate, @3we@1 shall go -- Let us remember this. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO A CLAM by JOHN GODFREY SAXE THE OLD LINE FENCE by AMERICUS WELLINGTON BELLAW THE PHILOSOPHER by BERTON BRALEY A PRAIRIE MOTHER'S LULLABY by EARL ALONZO BRININSTOOL ASOLANDO: PROLOGUE by ROBERT BROWNING |