Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TIME IS GONE, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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First Line: The time is gone when we could throw
Last Line: In such a happy place to shed such bitter tears.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): Aging


THE time is gone when we could throw
Our angle in the sleepy stream,
And nothing more desired to know
Than was it roach or was it bream?
Sitting there in such a mute delight,
The kingfisher would come and on the rods alight.

Or, hurrying through the dewy hay
Without a thought but to make haste,
We came to where the old ring lay
And bats and balls seemed heaven at least.
With our laughing and our giant strokes
The echoes clacked among the chestnuts and the oaks.

When the spring came up we got
And out among old Ammet Hills
Blossoms, aye and pleasures sought
And found! bloom withers, pleasure chills;
Then geographers along wild brooks
We named the tumbling-bays and creeks and horse-shoe crooks.

But one day I found a man
Leaning on the bridge's rail;
Dared his downward face to scan,
And awestruck wondered what could ail
An elder, blest with all the gifts of years,
In such a happy place to shed such bitter tears.





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