‘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

I do retire

Into an old room

Beside a bright fire:

O, pile a bright fire!

And there I sit

Reading old things,

Of knights and lorn damsels,

While the wind sings —

O, drearily sings!

I never look out

Nor attend to the blast;

For all to be seen

Is the leaves falling fast:

Falling, falling!

But close at the hearth,

Like a cricket, sit I,

Reading of summer

And chivalry —

Gallant chivalry!

Then with an old friend

I 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 wood ring again

In summer time —

Sweet summer time!

Then go we smoking,

Silent and snug:

Naught passes between us,

Save a brown jug —

Sometimes!

And sometimes a tear

Will rise in each eye,

Seeing the two old friends

So merrily —

So merrily!

And ere to bed

Go we, go we,

Down on the ashes

We kneel on the knee,

Praying together!

Thus, then, live I

Till, ‘mid all the gloom,

By Heaven! the bold sun

Is with me in the room

Shining, shining!

Then the clouds 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 to the meadows,

The meadows again!