Heading for 300 blogs

Heading for the light - or 300 Blogs

Just a poem for this blog. Losing my best mate this year, this just says it all. Feeling quite emotionally raw at the moment. Reading a biography of Samuel Beckett, "Damned to Fame", Beckett was quite affected by the words - his own life was nearing its end - and apparently his play "What Where" reflected this in part. He had lost many old friends in just a few short years. 

 Oft, in the Stilly Night (Scotch Air)

BY THOMAS MOORE

Oft, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

Fond memory brings the light

Of other days around me;

The smiles, the tears,

Of boyhood’s years,

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone,

Now dimm’d and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain hath bound me,

Sad memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends, so link’d together,

I’ve seen around me fall,

Like leaves in wintry weather;

I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

Sad memory brings the light

Of other days around me.