I'll tell you, shall I, something I remember? <br />Something that still means a great deal to me. <br />It was long ago. <br /> <br />A dusty road in summer I remember, <br />A mountain, and an old house, and a tree <br />That stood, you know, <br /> <br />Behind the house. An old woman I remember <br />In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee <br />Humming under a tree. <br /> <br />She seemed the oldest thing I can remember. <br />But then perhaps I was not more than three. <br />It was long ago. <br /> <br />I dragged on the dusty road, and I remember <br />How the old woman looked over the fence at me <br />And seemed to know <br /> <br />How it felt to be three, and called out, I remember <br />'Do you like bilberries and cream for tea?' <br />I went under the tree. <br /> <br />And while she hummed, and the cat purred, I remember <br />How she filled a saucer with berries and cream for me <br />So long ago. <br /> <br />Such berries and such cream as I remember <br />I never had seen before, and never see <br />Today, you know. <br /> <br />And that is almost all I can remember, <br />The house, the mountain, the gray cat on her knee, <br />Her red shawl, and the tree, <br /> <br />And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember, <br />And the smell of everything that used to be <br />So long ago, <br /> <br />Till the heat on the road outside again I remember <br />And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me <br />No end, you know. <br /> <br />That is the farthest thing I can remember. <br />It won't mean much to you. It does to me. <br />Then I grew up, you see.<br /><br />Eleanor Farjeon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/it-was-long-ago/
