Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
A Song Dickens Heard

If your computer's sound is turned on, you will be hearing a version of "Oft in the Stilly Night"

"Oft in the Stilly Night"1
Thomas Moore: 1779-1852

Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

When I remember all
The friends, so link'd together,
I've seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one,
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.



1   This song is referenced by Charles Dickens in "Sketches by Boz" (Penguin Classics, 1995, Scenes: Chapter 12, Greenwich Fair, Endnote 13, p. 600; referenced on p. 142.)

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