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| HOW many years have made their flights, | |
| Northampton, over thee and me, | |
| Since last I scaled those purple heights | |
| That guard the pathway to the sea; | |
| |
| Or climbed, as now, the topmost crown | 5 |
| Of western ridges, whence again | |
| I see, for miles beyond the town, | |
| That sunlit stream divide the plain? | |
| |
| There still the giant warders stand | |
| And watch the current’s downward flow, | 10 |
| And northward still, with threatening hand, | |
| The river bends his ancient bow. | |
| |
| I see the hazy lowlands meet | |
| The sky, and count each shining spire, | |
| From those which sparkle at my feet | 15 |
| To distant steeples tipt with fire. | |
| |
| For still, old town, thou art the same: | |
| The redbreasts sing their choral tune, | |
| Within thy mantling elms aflame, | |
| As in that other, dearer June, | 20 |
| |
| When here my footsteps entered first, | |
| And summer perfect beauty wore, | |
| And all thy charms upon me burst, | |
| While Life’s whole journey lay before. | |
| |
| Here every fragrant walk remains, | 25 |
| Where happy maidens come and go, | |
| And students saunter in the lanes | |
| And hum the songs I used to know. | |
| |
| I gaze, yet find myself alone, | |
| And walk with solitary feet: | 30 |
| How strange these wonted ways have grown! | |
| Where are the friends I used to meet? | |
| |
| In yonder shaded Academe | |
| The rippling metres flow to-day, | |
| But other boys at sunset dream | 35 |
| Of love, and laurels far away; | |
| |
| And ah! from yonder trellised home, | |
| Less sweet the faces are that peer | |
| Than those of old, and voices come | |
| Less musically to my ear. | 40 |
| |
| Sigh not, ye breezy elms, but give | |
| The murmur of my sweetheart’s vows, | |
| When Life was something worth to live, | |
| And Love was young beneath your boughs! | |
| |
| Fade beauty, smiling everywhere, | 45 |
| That can from year to year outlast | |
| Those charms a thousand times more fair, | |
| And, oh, our joys so quickly past! | |
| |
| Or smile to gladden fresher hearts | |
| Henceforth: but they shall yet be led, | 50 |
| Revisiting these ancient parts, | |
| Like me to mourn their glory fled. | |
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