 | The Poems of Selwyn Image |  |
118
TO THE OLD BLACK CABINET
on its departure to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Goodbye, Old Friend, 'tis fourscore years,
Or nigh, since first you won
My childish heart! What wonder tears
Well up now you are gone?
Or nigh, since first you won
My childish heart! What wonder tears
Well up now you are gone?
Together you and I no more
May watch how fares our home,
Its shifts and changes floor to floor
While fashions go and come.
May watch how fares our home,
Its shifts and changes floor to floor
While fashions go and come.
But 'mid them ah! to you at least
All paid their courteous bow,
As time sped on your charm increased,
We felt it grow and grow.
All paid their courteous bow,
As time sped on your charm increased,
We felt it grow and grow.
Some shapely art shall stand, I trust,
Where you have stood so long,
No worthless piece its presence thrust
To do your memory wrong.
Where you have stood so long,
No worthless piece its presence thrust
To do your memory wrong.
Farewell! and yet I say Farewell
With a heart not wholly sad,
The home, wherein you go to dwell,
Is nobler than you've had.
With a heart not wholly sad,
The home, wherein you go to dwell,
Is nobler than you've had.
And there in reverence you'll be held
Safe from least chance of harm,
While to and fro by your beauty spelled
Stroll crowds, and laud your charm.
Safe from least chance of harm,
While to and fro by your beauty spelled
Stroll crowds, and laud your charm.
And so Goodbye, Old Friend, Goodbye!
To thoughtful care I leave you;
For though we part now, you and I,
Right loyal hearts receive you.
To thoughtful care I leave you;
For though we part now, you and I,
Right loyal hearts receive you.
October 23rd, 1929.
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