I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions, <br />In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days-- <br />All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. <br /> <br />I have been laughing, I have been carousing, <br />Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies-- <br />All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. <br /> <br />I loved a Love once, fairest among women: <br />Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her-- <br />All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. <br /> <br />I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man: <br />Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; <br />Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces. <br /> <br />Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, <br />Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse, <br />Seeking to find the old familiar faces. <br /> <br />Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, <br />Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling? <br />So might we talk of the old familiar faces-- <br /> <br />How some they have died, and some they have left me, <br />And some are taken from me; all are departed-- <br />All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.<br /><br />Charles Lamb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-old-familiar-faces/
