Snowflakes and Sunbeams

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

OLD VOICES

 
I STAND on the the confines of the past to-night—
     The world that is gone before;
And in the dim flicker of the parlor light
Old shadows steal before my sight
     From its strange and misty shore.
5

And bygone murmurs are in my ears,
     And sweet lips touch my cheeks;
And old, old tunes, that no one hears,
Now steal to me from the sad old years,
     And sweet words that no one speaks.
10

But only the rythm of an old-time tune,
     That steals down the halls of time;
And comes so soft, like the far-off rune
Of a stream that sleeps through the afternoon,
     Or a distant evening chime.
15

And in the silence that intervenes
     Sad voices whisper low;
Come back once more to the loved old scenes—
To the dim old region of boyhood’s dreams—
     To the sweet world you used to know.
20