Edward FitzGerald - Old Song lyrics

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 pa**es 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!