When I was young my heart and head were light, <br />And I was gay and feckless as a colt <br />Out in the fields, with morning in the may, <br />Wind on the grass, wings in the orchard bloom. <br />O thrilling sweet, my joy, when life was free <br />And all the paths led on from hawthorn-time <br />Across the carolling meadows into June. <br /> <br />But now my heart is heavy-laden. I sit <br />Burning my dreams away beside the fire: <br />For death has made me wise and bitter and strong; <br />And I am rich in all that I have lost. <br />O starshine on the fields of long-ago, <br />Bring me the darkness and the nightingale; <br />Dim wealds of vanished summer, peace of home, <br />And silence; and the faces of my friends.<br /><br />Siegfried Sassoon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/memory-6/
