I memorized this poem as a child in elementary school. I do not remember the author. I know only four lines:
"I remember, I remember, the house where I was born,
The little window where the sun came peeking in at morn.
It never came a wink too soon, or brought too long a day,
But oh I often wished the breeze, had blown my breath away."


Thanks.

It's by Thomas Hood:

I Remember, I Remember

I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!

I remember, I remember,
The roses, red and white,
The vi'lets, and the lily-cups,
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,--
The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember,
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
My spirit flew in feathers then,
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow!

I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm farther off from heav'n
Than when I was a boy.

Les

Dear Les (lg) :

Thank you very much for answering my question about this poem.
I think I may come to value the computer.

Thank you both for posting this. We were in need of this poem for someone very special who loved to recite this.

How strange that Thomas Hood thought it necessary to write vi'lets

I'm not sure he did - or if he did, both the anthologies I find it in have altered it to the full word (Palgrave and Collin's Best Loved Verse). That poem isn't in my oldest anthology (Ward's English Poets) but there is a quotation from Hood's The Haunted House, which goes 'With shatter'd panes the grassy court was starr'd', then rhymes 'starr'd 'with 'barr'd' and has 'O'er' as the start of the next stanza, so Hood obviously wasn't averse to apostrophes, though usually to replace an e. It's possible the more modern anthologists altered it to make it easier to read when this use of apostrophes declined

My copy of Hood's Poetical Works (no publication date in it, for some reason) also has it spelled out violets. Oddly, the table of contents shows the title with an exclamation mark, but on the page with the poem itself, there is none.

Hugh - I think your exclamation mark was a delightful frivolity, I'm quite jealous as there are none similarly placed in my anthologies. As to publication dates, someone told me/I read that lack of a publication date in a British book actually pins a relatively modern book down to a particular period or periods and so can help you date it. By this I mean that there are known times when few or no books were dated and others when virtually all were, rather than that there were random books undated in all periods. It was a while ago and I didn't write the details down, but maybe someone here will know - it could even have been here I read it - I've only got one marble left now - burble, burble.

The use of apostrophes was and is used to alter the number of syllables in a word and therefore the meter in a line.

I have been told that much of the punctuation applied to poetry in older books was often the work of printers who sought to make the work appear more impressive on the printed page.

Whether this is true or not there certainly is an abandunce of punctuation in poetry books printed in the eighteeen hundreds and early last century.

Similarly much poetry was altered (with and without the poet's permission) so that it suited the lay out design of the printer. This is often why there are a number of different printed versions of the same poem!

The same thing is still often done today. I recently purchased an anthology of Australian poetry printed only two years ago where there are a number of old poems shortened (without warning) obviously so they will fit the design of the book.

The sad part is they will be regarded as correct versions by younger readers as many of the works they were taken from are now out of print.

Vic, I think you are probably right on the mark in your opinion about editors, and printers becoming the last word in how a piece is remembered. I would only add that with the proliferation of the internet, poor editing (reading) of a piece further jeopardizes the integrity of the original.


Les

Vic, please name that anthology so I can avoid it, or at least rebuke the editor(s) or publisher. People who are so uncaring about our poetry heritage deserve some negative feedback.

I guess that many of the apostrophes changing ed to 'd at the end of a word date from a time when the ed would otherwise have been pronounced as a separate syllable, and were inserted by the poet to avoid that. Presumably it was becoming optional - perhaps at first just in poetry - to silence the e.

Ian,

I am afraid that as I previously said editors and printers have been guilty of altering the works of poets for many, many years. Hence one of Henry Lawson's best known poems, "Do You Think That I Do Not Know," also often appears as "Do They Think That I Do Not Know," and minus the last two verses. Similarly, Adam Lindsay Gordon's, "The Sick Stockrider," usually appears minus the last line!

I wont name the recent anthology as I intend to take this subject up with its compiler when I have a chance to meet him, which should be soon.

However, I recently enterd a performance competition and recited a poem written by Edward Harrington that I had learned from the anthology only to be told by an expert on Harrington that I had omitted three verses. These verses were not included in the book!

Edward Harrington's works are all out of print and probably will not be re- printed. Therefore this anthology will probably perpetuate the error for time to come!

Apostophes have the ability to alter the meter in a line and are usually used for this reason, hence: e're for ever; ne'er for never; o'er for over etcetera.
Generally speaking abbreviations should not be used in formal writing therefore the use of apostrophes to indicate such should not appear unless used in direct speech or direct quotations.

Thanks for posting this.

I also learned this poem as a child in school and have been looking for it for several years now.