Earlier I waxed both nostalgic and hopefully elegant(ly) about the Book of Knowledge.

Here’s one of the many poetic gems inside that also speaks to nostalgia. I don’t know anything about Eliza Cook, but I sure like what she wrote.

First stanza:

“I LOVE it, I love it; and who shall dare
To chide me for loving that old arm-chair?
I’ve treasured it long as a sainted prize;
I’ve bedewed it with tears, and embalmed it with sighs.
‘Tis bound by a thousand bands to my heart;
Not a tie will break, not a link will start.
Would ye learn the spell ? —a mother sat there;
And a sacred thing is that old arm-chair.”

“The Old Arm-Chair” by Eliza Cook, from the Book of Knowledge (1939 ed).

Full poem here if the picture doesn’t work well for you.