When in some distant timelessness We pace an endless, golden shore, Perhaps my ghostly friends and I Will call to mind our lives before. If one should say, "The Planet Earth -- That was a place where sorrow grew, And people paid a bitter price For all the happiness they knew!" I should reply, "It may have been That Earth required a heavy toll, But if I bore my share of pain, Its memory escapes my soul, And all that I can recollect Is how the dogwood trees, in spring, Stood white against the forest's rim, And set its darkness shimmering; How summer mornings drowsed with bees, And nights cried out with whippoorwills, How autumn wore a purple veil, And silver winter hushed the hills; And how my spirit stayed at home And never longed for other lands, For Earth felt firm beneath my feet, And there was warmth in peoples' hands!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TROOPS by SIEGFRIED SASSOON RENEWAL by GLADYS NAOMI ARNOLD COMPARES THE TROUBLES WHICH HE HAS UNDERGONE, TO LABOURS OF HERCULES by PHILIP AYRES SEASONS AND TIMES by WILLIAM BARNES JENNIE HARRIS OLIVER by THERESA DRULEY BLACK A SLEEPY SONG by CARRIE JACOBS BOND A SONG OF APPLE-GATHERING by GORDON BOTTOMLEY SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 16 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING TO AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN, WHOM THE AUTHOR HAD KNOWN ... by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |