IN DAYS GONE BY: RONDEAU REDOUBLÉ
IN days gone by when you were here
I little heeded what you said;
I watched the skies above me clear,
I listened to the thrush instead.
To this same spot my feet are led
By thoughts of you another year
The selfsame pine-trees rose overhead
In days gone by, when you were here.
Their slender forms to-day they rear
Aloft in the same beauty spread
But ah! The thrush's song I fear!—
I little heeded what you said.
And now, as starving man for bread,
I'd spring to catch one word of cheer
Yet when with love my heart you fed
I watched the skies above me clear!
Once more on the same pine-leaves, sere
And fragrant 'neath the summer's tread,
I lie and think with many a tear
"I listened to the thrush instead!"
I listened to the thrush instead.
Yet could I now one accent hear
Of that loved voice forever fled! . . .
I knew not that you were so dear
In days gone by!
