Twenty Golden Years Ago

[Verse 1]
Oh, the rain, the weary rain stutters on my windowsill
Night I guess is on the wane all around has grown so still
Here I sit with coffee cup, ah, 'twas rare l watched it flow
In the tavern where I'd sup twenty golden years ago

[Verse 2]
Twenty years ago, alas, but stay 'tis half past twelve o'clock
Oh, how the hours do slip away, how the weary minutes mock
For night and morn are wet and cold, and my fire is dwindling low
Yet, I had fire enough when young twenty golden years ago

[Bridge]
In my wish to show them plain did I paint them honestly?
Wifeless, friendlеss, halt and lame were thеy but as pawns to me?
I who never reasoned why, blind, unjust and harsh I know
If I did live I was alive twenty golden years ago

[Verse 4]
Tick and lock, no sound but time's, and the howling winding rain
Tattooed through my withered rhymes time and time again
Of all my hopes, ambitions, schemes, these pages all that's left to show
Gone are all my lofty dreams twenty golden years ago