| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Memory |
| | | Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
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| THE MOTHER of the Muses, we are taught, | |
| Is Memory: she has left me; they remain, | |
| And shake my shoulder, urging me to sing | |
| About the summer days, my loves of old. | |
| Alas! alas! is all I can reply. | 5 |
| Memory has left with me that name alone, | |
| Harmonious name, which other bards may sing, | |
| But her bright image in my darkest hour | |
| Comes back, in vain comes back, call’d or uncall’d. | |
| Forgotten are the names of visitors | 10 |
| Ready to press my hand but yesterday; | |
| Forgotten are the names of earlier friends | |
| Whose genial converse and glad countenance | |
| Are fresh as ever to mine ear and eye; | |
| To these, when I have written and besought | 15 |
| Remembrance of me, the word Dear alone | |
| Hangs on the upper verge, and waits in vain. | |
| A blessing wert thou, O oblivion, | |
| If thy stream carried only weeds away, | |
| But vernal and autumnal flowers alike | 20 |
| It hurries down to wither on the strand. | |
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