Suggested on returning home for my holidays by an old portrait of the poet, which hangs in my room.

Old friend! - I always loved thee;
In childhood's early days,
Delighted I would listen
With laughter to thy lays.

And better still I loved thee,
To riper boyhood grown;
Because thou wert the pride of
The land that's part my own.

But with devotion deepened
I greet thee now anew,
Of love, because thou singest
So simple, sweet, and true.