O the days gone by! O the days gone by! <br />The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye; <br />The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail <br />As he piped across the meadows sweet as any nightingale; <br />When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue was in the sky, <br />And my happy heart brimmed over in the days gone by. <br /> <br />In the days gone by, when my naked feet were tripped <br />By the honey-suckle's tangles where the water-lilies dipped, <br />And the ripples of the river lipped the moss along the brink <br />Where the placid-eyed and lazy-footed cattle came to drink, <br />And the tilting snipe stood fearless of the truant's wayward cry <br />And the splashing of the swimmer, in the days gone by. <br /> <br />O the days gone by! O the days gone by! <br />The music of the laughing lip, the luster of the eye; <br />The childish faith in fairies, and Aladdin's magic ring-- <br />The simple, soul-reposing, glad belief in everything,-- <br />When life was like a story, holding neither sob nor sigh, <br />In the golden olden glory of the days gone by.<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-days-gone-by-2/
