TIS a dull sight 
   To see the year dying, 
When winter winds 
   Set the yellow wood sighing: 
   Sighing, O sighing! 

When such a time cometh 
   I do retire 
Into an old room 
   Beside a bright fire: 
   O, pile a bright fire! 

And there I sit 
   Reading old things, 
Of knights and lorn damsels, 
   While the wind sings-- 
   O, drearily sings! 

I never look out 
   Nor attend to the blast; 
For all to be seen 
   Is the leaves falling fast: 
   Falling, falling! 

But close at the hearth, 
   Like a cricket, sit I, 
Reading of summer 
   And chivalry-- 
   Gallant chivalry! 

Then with an old friend 
   I talk of our youth-- 
How 'twas gladsome, but often 
   Foolish, forsooth: 
   But gladsome, gladsome! 

Or, to get merry, 
   We sing some old rhyme 
That made the wood ring again 
   In summer time-- 
   Sweet summer time! 

Then go we smoking, 
   Silent and snug: 
Naught passes between us, 
   Save a brown jug-- 
   Sometimes! 

And sometimes a tear 
   Will rise in each eye, 
Seeing the two old friends 
   So merrily-- 
   So merrily! 

And ere to bed 
   Go we, go we, 
Down on the ashes 
   We kneel on the knee, 
   Praying together! 

Thus, then, live I 
   Till, 'mid all the gloom, 
By Heaven! the bold sun 
   Is with me in the room 
   Shining, shining! 

Then the clouds part, 
   Swallows soaring between; 
The spring is alive, 
   And the meadows are green! 

I jump up like mad, 
   Break the old pipe in twain, 
And away to the meadows, 
   The meadows again!