An Old Friend

Hey, Old Midsummer! are you here again,         With all your harvest-store of olden joys, -     Vast overhanging meadow-lands of rain,     And drowsy dawns, and noons when golden grain         Nods in the sun, and lazy truant boys     Drift ever listlessly adown the day,     Too full of joy to rest, and dreams to play.     The same old Summer, with the same old smile         Beaming upon us in the same old way     We knew in childhood!    Though a weary while     Since that far time, yet memories reconcile         The heart with odorous breaths of clover hay;     And again I hear the doves, and the sun streams through     The old barn door just as it used to do.     And so it seems like welcoming a friend -         An old, OLD friend, upon his coming home     From some far country - coming home to spend     Long, loitering days with me:    And I extend         My hand in rapturous glee: - And so you've come! -     Ho, I'm so glad!    Come in and take a chair:     Well, this is just like OLD times, I declare!