The Old Town

Oh, let me not enter the old town,

The straggling street!

Oh, I fear, I fear the going down

On stumbling feet!

Oh, let me not grope down the dim way

To the pitchy sea,

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Unlit of a moon or a dim ray

Through a cavernous tree.

All, all they will take from me

By the black shore;

The ancients will steal me silently

The purple I wore.

They will steal my love, they will steal my hate,

I shall tremble bare;

They will make my body cold and straight

And lay me there

Where my childhood sleeps forever and ever.

Oh, I fear,"

I fear the town that ever and ever

I'm coming near.