The Old Familiar Faces Poem by Charles Lamb

The Old Familiar Faces

Rating: 3.1


I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions,
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days--
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have been laughing, I have been carousing,
Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies--
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I loved a Love once, fairest among women:
Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her--
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man:
Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;
Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.

Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood,
Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse,
Seeking to find the old familiar faces.

Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,
Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?
So might we talk of the old familiar faces--

How some they have died, and some they have left me,
And some are taken from me; all are departed--
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM

The memories of childhood from the poet is super.

0 0 Reply
Chinedu Dike 06 February 2017

Absolutely awesome! Lovely poem indeed.

0 2 Reply
John S 10 November 2015

I will comment on this beautiful poem later, I am annoyed by Thabani's incessant copy and paste that he would like to write like this, only if god would bless him enough to! Stop pasting that. You want to write like that than practice, practice, practice. Study the old masters, study vocabulary, read books like A Poetry Handbook, study literature, but for god's sake stop copying and pasting that stupid sentence. Why are you doing that?

3 4 Reply
Thabani Khumalo 16 June 2015

I have a vision to write like this, only if god would bless me enough to.ag

2 6 Reply
Ruth Campbell 15 December 2005

this poem seems to depict the heart of charles lamb and his broken relationship. One gets the feeling he could not persue his love due to caring for his insane sister Mary.

5 6 Reply
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