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| IN summer, when the days were long, | |
| We walk’d, two friends, in field and wood; | |
| Our heart was light, our step was strong, | |
| And life lay round us, fair as good, | |
| In summer, when the days were long. | 5 |
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| We stray’d from morn till evening came, | |
| We gather’d flowers, and wove us crowns; | |
| We walk’d mid poppies red as flame, | |
| Or sat upon the yellow downs, | |
| And always wish’d our life the same. | 10 |
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| In summer, when the days were long, | |
| We leap’d the hedgerow, cross’d the brook; | |
| And still her voice flow’d forth in song, | |
| Or else she read some graceful book, | |
| In summer, when the days were long. | 15 |
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| And then we sat beneath the trees, | |
| With shadows lessening in the noon; | |
| And in the sunlight and the breeze | |
| We revell’d, many a glorious June, | |
| While larks were singing o’er the leas. | 20 |
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| In summer, when the days were long, | |
| We pluck’d wild strawberries, ripe and red, | |
| Or feasted, with no grace but song, | |
| On golden nectar, snow-white bread, | |
| In summer, when the days were long. | 25 |
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| We lov’d, and yet we knew it not, | |
| For loving seem’d like breathing then; | |
| We found a heaven in every spot; | |
| Saw angels, too, in all good men, | |
| And dream’d of gods in grove and grot. | 30 |
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| In summer, when the days are long, | |
| Alone I wander, muse alone; | |
| I see her not, but that old song | |
| Under the fragrant wind is blown, | |
| In summer, when the days are long. | 35 |
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| Alone I wander in the wood, | |
| But one fair spirit hears my sighs; | |
| And half I see the crimson hood, | |
| The radiant hair, the calm glad eyes, | |
| That charm’d me in life’s summer mood. | 40 |
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| In summer, when the days are long, | |
| I love her as I lov’d of old; | |
| My heart is light, my step is strong, | |
| For love brings back those hours of gold, | |
| In summer, when the days are long. | 45 |
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