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Home  »  English Poetry III  »  731. The Days That Were

English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

William Morris

731. The Days That Were

WHILES in the early winter eve

We pass amid the gathering night

Some homestead that we had to leave

Years past; and see its candles bright

Shine in the room beside the door

Where we were merry years agone,

But now must never enter more,

As still the dark road drives us on.

E’en so the world of men may turn

At even of some hurried day

And see the ancient glimmer burn

Across the waste that hath no way;

Then, with that faint light in its eyes,

Awhile I bid it linger near

And nurse in waving memories

The bitter sweet of days that were.