Song of the Olden Time

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h1 id="id03095" style="margin-top: 6em">THE SONG OF THE OLDEN TIME.</h1> <p id="id03096" style="margin-top: 2em">There's a song of the olden time,<br/> Falling sad o'er the ear,<br/> Like the dream of some village chime,<br/> Which in youth we loved to hear.<br/> And even amidst the grand and gay,<br/> When Music tries her gentlest art<br/> I never hear so sweet a lay,<br/> Or one that hangs so round my heart,<br/> As that song of the olden time,<br/> Falling sad o'er the ear,<br/> Like the dream of some village chime,<br/> Which in youth we loved to hear,<br/></p> <p id="id03097">And when all of this life is gone,—<br/> Even the hope, lingering now,<br/> Like the last of the leaves left on<br/> Autumn's sere and faded bough,—<br/> 'Twill seem as still those friends were near,<br/> Who loved me in youth's early day,<br/> If in that parting hour I hear<br/> The same sweet notes and die away,—<br/> To that song of the olden time,<br/> Breathed, like Hope's farewell strain,<br/> To say, in some brighter clime,<br/> Life and youth will shine again!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />