Old Song
Edward FitzGerald
1809 to 1883
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Tis a dull sight
To see the year dying,
When winter winds
Set the yellow wood sighing:
Sighing, O sighing!
When such a time cometh
______ do retire
Into an old room
Beside a ______ fire:
O, pile a bright fire!
And there ______ sit
Reading old things,
Of knights and lorn damsels,
While the wind sings—
O, drearily sings!
______ never look out
Nor attend to the blast;
______ all to be seen
Is the leaves falling fast:
Falling, falling!
But close at the hearth,
______ a cricket, sit I,
Reading of summer
And chivalry—
Gallant chivalry!
Then with an old friend
______ talk of our youth—
How ’twas gladsome, but often
Foolish, forsooth:
But gladsome, gladsome!
Or, to get merry,
We sing some old rhyme
That made the ______ ring again
In summer time—
Sweet summer time!
Then go we smoking,
Silent and snug:
Naught ______ between us,
Save a brown jug—
Sometimes!
______ sometimes a tear
Will rise in each eye,
______ the two old friends
So merrily—
So merrily!
And ere to bed
Go we, go we,
______ on the ashes
We kneel on the knee,
Praying together!
Thus, then, live I
Till, ’mid ______ the gloom,
By Heaven! the bold sun
Is ______ me in the room
Shining, shining!
Then the ______ part,
Swallows soaring between;
The spring is alive,
And the meadows are green!
I jump up like mad,
Break the old pipe in twain,
And away ______ the meadows,
The meadows again!