The Old Familiar Faces
Where are they gone, the old familiar faces?

I had a mother, but she died, and left me,
Died prematurely in a days of horrors �
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have had playmates, I have had companions,
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days �
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have been laughing, I have been carousing,
Drinking late sitting late, with my bosom cronies �
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I loved once, fairest among women.
Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her �
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man.
Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;
Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.

Ghost-like, I paced round the haunts of my childhood.
Earth seem�d a desert I was bound to traverse,
Seeking to find the old familiar faces.

Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother!
Why wert not thou born in my father�s dwelling?
So might we talk about the old familiar faces.

For some they have died, and some they have left me,
And some are taken from me; all are departed;
All, all are gone, the familiar faces.

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb devoted his life to looking after his sister Mary who, in a fit of insanity, had killed their mother. This poem was written shortly after that tragedy and expresses his sense of shock and loneliness.