I Weep Like a Child for the Past

Santiago Rusiñol. “A Romance”

Wednesday

Since I’ve returned to my boyhood home, here’s a D. H. Lawrence nostalgia poem that I’ve always enjoyed. My mother even has a grand piano although I never sat at her feet as she played it.

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; 
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see 
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings 
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. 

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song 
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong 
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside 
And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide. 

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor 
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour 
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast 
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. 

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