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A Familiar Face
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| A Familiar Face written by William Henry Davies |
| New Poems (1907) |
O for a familiar face,
To see the child outgrow the man!
'Shun him,' they cry, 'that man from jail:
Shun him, that slave to Bacchus ale;
Shun him, who swears for all he can.'
Nay, what care I for that? I trace
My way through him to scenes of joy;
I know him not as one who spent
Part of his life in jail; he went
To the same school with me a boy,
Which fills my heart with sweet content.
A thousand times I've set my mind
Sternly 'gainst Bacchus and his race;
I've seen with pity men go mad,
And women going to the bad;
But Chance hath brought my way a face
Which shows the boy I love behind.
'Say, how is little Jane, who went
'To school between us two?' 'Oh, she
Is well; and babies' - 'Babies!' - Three'.
And in the name of wonderment,
Bacchus hath ta'en a hold on me.
| This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. |