The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb
Lamb read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\n\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\n The Old Familiar Faces \nby Charles Lamb (1775\u20131834)\n \nI have had playmates, I have had companions, \nIn my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days - \nAll, all are gone, the old familiar faces. \n\nI have been laughing, I have been carousing, \nDrinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies - \nAll, all are gone, the old familiar faces. \n\nI loved a Love once, fairest among women: \nClosed are her doors on me, I must not see her - \nAll, all are gone, the old familiar faces. \n\nI have a friend, a kinder friend has no man: \nLike an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; \nLeft him, to muse on the old familiar faces. \n\nGhost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, \nEarth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse, \nSeeking to find the old familiar faces. \n\nFriend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, \nWhy wert not thou born in my father's dwelling? \nSo might we talk of the old familiar faces - \n\nHow some they have died, and some they have left me, \nAnd some are taken from me; all are departed - \nAll, all are gone, the old familiar faces.