I cannot count the people I have known, They have grown older as the seasons pass, And their voices fade like the sounds of the dawn, And I fear I will forget they were ever here.

The wind has whispered to me all the nights, With the darkness settled as the day was lost, And I saw their faces shine through the clouds, Abandoning me like the light from the stars.

But one is left; a friend through all the years, An echo soothing as the secret of the woods; He softly sings to the leaves that wander, As the dawn comes and my heart returns home.

• Robert Frost