There stands the ancient gabled house;
The rooms therein how well I know!
They’re still as once they were, when first
I loved there, long ago.
But, like the moon, times change, and hearts,
And strangers now the dwelling claim;
Another passion fills my breast;
Yet is the house the same.
Today I went there to the feast;
Some memory made my bosom stir,
I heeded not the song and jest,
I only thought of _her_,--
Of all that we had meant to be,
Of all my vanisht youthful years,
And of the love that filled her eyes,--
Till mine o’erflowed with tears.
And when I roused me from the thought,
Alas, how changed did all things seem!
As though that dream had been my life,
And all my life a dream.
Longing.