Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | II. Parting and Absence | | The Old Familiar Faces | | Charles Lamb (1775–1834) |
| | | I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions, | |
| In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days; | |
| All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
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| I have been laughing, I have been carousing, | |
| Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies; | 5 |
| All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
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| I loved a Love once, fairest among women: | |
| Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her,— | |
| All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | |
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| I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man: | 10 |
| Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; | |
| Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces. | |
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| Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, | |
| Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, | |
| Seeking to find the old familiar faces. | 15 |
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| Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, | |
| Why wert not thou born in my father’s dwelling? | |
| So might we talk of the old familiar faces. | |
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| How some they have died, and some they have left me, | |
| And some are taken from me; all are departed; | 20 |
| All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. | | | | |
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