Explore "When One Forgets" by Gilbert Parker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When one forgets, the old things are as dead things; / The grey leaves fall, and eyes that saw their May / Turn from them now, and voices that have said things / Wherein Life joyed, alas! are still to-day -- / When one forgets.
The world was noble, now its sordid casement / Glows but with garish folly, and the plains / Of rich achievement lie in mean abasement -- / Ah, Hope is only midwife to our pains!
When one forgets, but maimed rites come after: / To mourn, be priest, be sexton, bear the pall, / Remembrance-robed, the while a distant laughter / Proclaims Love's ghost -- what wonder skies should fall, / When one forgets!