Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Charles Lamb. 17751834577. The Old Familiar Faces
I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions, | |
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days— | |
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
I have been laughing, I have been carousing, | |
Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies— | 5 |
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
I loved a Love once, fairest among women: | |
Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her— | |
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man: | 10 |
Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; | |
Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces. | |
Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, | |
Earth seem’d a desert I was bound to traverse, | |
Seeking to find the old familiar faces. | 15 |
Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, | |
Why wert not thou born in my father’s dwelling? | |
So might we talk of the old familiar faces— | |
How some they have died, and some they have left me, | |
And some are taken from me; all are departed— | 20 |
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. |