Back your song, this evening, takes me, back within that golden past,
And I seem to see the village—and the spell of yore is cast
Once again about my spirit! Memory brings before my view
Friends and faces long since vanished—sounds and scenes that once I knew.
Till the sea-girt town uprises from the mist, in verdure drest,
Borne as jewel in its setting on the grand old ocean's breast;
O'er the waves the bell sounds clearly with its call to evening prayer,
And the martins wheel and circle, now, with swift wing through the air.
So I muse while twilight summons once again the long ago,
And its clustered memories fill my brooding heart, and overflow.