Page:Poems Greenwell.djvu/306

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THE OLD FAMILY.


Not now is given, as of old, unto the free of hand,
And to the liberal of soul, the fulness of the land;
Or They would have been with us still, our hearts and homes among,
The good old family, that held by hill and stream so long.

The oldest tales among us told, the oldest song e'er sung,
Could bring no trace of times when that our goodly tree was young;
They lived among us, sire and son, among us when they died,
We laid them where their Fathers lie, each resting side by side.

They were so much our own, that still their pleasure was our pride,
When a child was born unto the house, or the heir brought home his bride;