University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The poetical remains of William Sidney Walker

... Edited with a memoir of the author by the Rev. J. Moultrie

collapse section
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FRAGMENT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


87

FRAGMENT.

[“Those days are past;—and it is now]

Those days are past;—and it is now
A place where all may come and go;
To which the tide of travellers flows,
For transient mirth, or brief repose:
All pressing to some onward aim,
They come, and vanish as they came:
The mansion hath in them no share,
Their hopes, their loves are all elsewhere.
No legends gather round its halls,
No household genii haunt its walls.
But yet to me, where'er I roam,
O'er that estranged and altered home,
O'er sacred hearth, and social room,
And echoing threshold, and the gloom
Of staircase old, o'er ivied towers,
And gardens bright with summer flowers,
O'er floor and roof, o'er wall and bed,
The glory of the Past is spread,

88

Clothing its chambers with a light,
To which the noonday sun is night.
And if indeed, as Christians say,
The unbodied soul must live for aye,
I think that mine, where'er it be,
Will keep, through its eternity,
In joy or sorrow, unremoved,
The image of that place beloved.”
 

The speaker (a Pagan) has been describing the home of his childhood.