A Song Of Memory

Here as I sit in the dark and ponder, Watching the firelight dance and gleam, What brings them back to my mind, I wonder? Those old days of laughter and dream. Dear old days, when we roamed together All the pathways that cross Slieve Rue, Caring for naught in the sunny weather, Laughing together, I and you.

Voice of the west wind, calling, calling, Sobbing beat of the Irish rain, Whispering leaves and waters falling, Ay, and you by my side again; Out of the past I hear them ringing-- All the songs of the days of old; Hear the lark on the hillside singing, See the gleam of the gorse's gold.

Till, as I sit in the firelight dreaming, Watching the shadows grow apace, Out of the long dead years comes gleaming There in the flames your laughing face; All the days that are past and over Gone in the turf smoke, curling blue, And from their wreckage I recover Song and sunshine and youth and you.