Thomas Moore (1779–1852) was an Irish poet and composer and a friend of Byron and Shelley. Oft in the Stilly Nightwas part of his major poetic work, Irish Melodies, a group of 130 poems set to music, some of which was by Moore himself. Performances of these in London created interest in the Irish Nationalist cause.
I suppose we have to wonder whether this should be considered a poem or a song lyric. I came across it in The Oxford Book of English Verse. I have never heard the musical version. It was chosen for that volume by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, where he gave it the title The Light of Other Days. But then, he included quite a lot of verses that might be considered songs, many of them by that old favourite “Anonymous”.
Song lyric or poem, it is powerfully nostalgic, with the “slumber’s chain” metaphor nicely extended to describe “the friends, so linked together”. I find it rather similar to The Old Familiar Faces by Henry Lamb and it speaks to the same emotions. What starts as “Fond memory” becomes “Sad memory”.
Oft in the Stilly Night by Thomas Moore
Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm’d and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night
Ere slumber’s chain hath bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
When I remember all
The friends, so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
The Good Reader 