O Let Me Tell You,

‘O let me tell you, ’ Said the old white beard And he sighed And he groaned Then continuing said ‘when yonder buildings Were just a green field’ ‘I knew them in my youth I knew them in boyhood And in my old age I only view the stones and Cement Bury the view that once I Sat upon’ ‘Yon, yon there was an oak Old oak with boughs And branches furnished all For housing of wise owls Aged and younger nightingales Who sang all seasons maturely in the Nights’ ‘How many glimpses of White come and go saw I as in the dark of night the ghosts and shrouds played round the oak: fearless the friendly owls continued still and fearless sang all night the nightingales’ ‘’But ah! times change As the Latin assert: O times! O customs! Before more in the eyes Of the owners as a field A pride of land it was But then came times When sound of coins Dross papers and dross Wealth the brain and will That was before blinded’ ‘No longer the tree that majestic loomed; no longer friendly round played ghosts and shrouds and in full sight of all the other trees. No longer now. The owls have aged and Gone their young ones Flew and the same fate Followed the nightingales’ ‘Now only the winds neighs And this On wintry days of hoar Mostly and generally: Its sad heart emptying And this sad tale In its rough language telling. Now only the wind, Now only the wind neighs’