oh the rain the weary rain
stutters on my window sill
night I guess is on the wane
all around has grown so still
here I sit with coffee cup
ah 't was rare l watched it flow
in the tavern where I'd sup
twenty golden years ago
twenty years ago alas
but stay 't is half past twelve o'clock
oh how the hours do slip away
and how the weary minutes mock
for night and morn are wet and cold
and my fire is dwindling low
yet I had fire enough
twenty golden years ago
in my wish to show them plain
did I paint them honestly
wifeless friendless halt and lame
were they but as pawns to me
I who never reasoned why
blind unjust and harsh I know
yet I did live I was alive
twenty golden years ago
tick and lock no sound but time's
and the howling winding rain
tattoo'd through my withered rhyme
time and time again
of all my hopes ambitions schemes
these pages all that's left to show
gone are all my lofty dreams
of twenty golden years ago