  ALONE, alone, thro’ the sunny street, In the shadow of a dream, The forms and faces I pass and meet In a mist and darkness seem. The old gray houses stand a-row, Their windows blink and stare, The sparrows chirp on the lilac bough From the garden in the square. The busy mower whets his scythe, He hums a cheery rhyme; The wild bees murmur, and drowse and dive In the blossom of the lime. The forms and faces that come and go, They flicker and wane and gleam, As I walk through the streets of long ago In the shadow of a dream. The faces waver and fade away; While under the lilac bough Upspringeth the aspect, bright and gay, Of a face I used to know. I see her stand, and she calls my name, And my heart and pulses glow As the old life starts like a buried flame, And the new life flickers low. The present darkens and faints and fades, And the old-loved smiles shine through; The living wander, like ghostly shades, And the lost are born anew. And my soul with the joy of its calm is rife, As I bask in my after-glow, For I loved my love, and I lived my life In the days of long ago. |
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