OH! when wilt thou return To thy spirit's early loves? To the freshness of the morn, To the stillness of the groves? The summer birds are calling Thy household porch around, And the merry waters falling With sweet laughter in their sound. And a thousand bright-veined flowers, From their banks of moss and fern, Breathe of the sunny hours -- But when wilt thou return? Oh! thou hast wandered long From thy home without a guide; And thy native woodland song In thine altered heart hath died. Thou hast flung the wealth away, And the glory of thy spring; And to thee the leaves' light play Is a long-forgotten thing. But when wilt thou return? -- Sweet dews may freshen soon The flower, within whose urn Too fiercely gazed the noon. O'er the image of the sky, Which the lake's clear bosom wore, Darkly may shadows lie -- But not for evermore. Give back thy heart again To the freedom of the woods, To the bird's triumphant strain, To the mountain solitudes! But when wilt thou return? Along thine own pure air There are young sweet voices borne -- Oh! should not thine be there? Still at thy father's board There is kept a place for thee; And, by the smile restored, Joy round the hearth shall be. Still hath thy mother's eye, Thy coming step to greet, A look of days gone by, Tender and gravely sweet. Still, when the prayer is said, For thee kind bosoms yearn, For thee fond tears are shed -- Oh! when wilt thou return? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LIGHT'OOD FIRE by JOHN HENRY BONER RECOLLECTIONS OF LOVE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY - 1918 by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS AT SENLIS ONCE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN INTERLUDE by MAXWELL BODENHEIM THE WANDERER: PROLOGUE. PART 3 by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |