Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
Reminiscences
By François-René de Chateaubriand (17681848)M
By me can never be forgot!
How happy, sister, then appeared
Our country’s lot,
O France! to me be still endeared,
Be still revered.
I see her by the chimney now,
Where oft she clasped us to her breast,
While on her brow
Our lips the white locks fondly pressed;
Then were we blessed!
The castle, which the stream would wet;
And that strange Moorish tower, so old,
Thou ’lt not forget;
How from its bell the deep sound rolled,
And day foretold.
The swallow brushed it as he flew,—
How with the reeds the breezes played;
The evening hue
With which the waters bright were made
In gold arrayed.
The maid whom to my heart I pressed
As, youthful lovers, we would stray,
In moments blest,
About the wood for wild-flowers gay,—
Past, past away!
My mountain and my old oak-tree;
I mourn their loss, I feel how drear
My life must be;
But, France! to me thou wilt appear
Forever dear.