"WE return! -- we return! -- we return no more!" So comes the song to the mountain shore, From those that are leaving their Highland home For a world far over the blue sea's foam: "We return no more!" and through cave and dell Mournfully wanders that wild farewell. "We return! -- we return! -- we return no more!" So breathe sad voices our spirits o'er; Murmuring up from the depths of the heart, Where lovely things with their light depart: And the inborn sound hath a prophet's tone, And we feel that a joy is for ever gone. "We return! -- we return! -- we return no more!" Is it heard when the days of flowers are o'er? When the passionate soul of the night-bird's lay Hath died from the summer woods away? When the glory from sunset's robe hath passed, Or the leaves are porne on the rushing blast? No! It is not the rose that returns no more; -- A breath of spring shall its bloom restore; And it is not the voice that o'erflows the bowers With a stream of love through the starry hours; Nor is it the crimson of sunset hues, Nor the frail flushed leaves which the wild wind strews. "We return! -- we return! -- we return no more!" Doth the bird sing thus from a brighter shore? Those wings that follow the southern breeze, Float they not homeward o'er vernal seas? Yes! from the lands of the vine and palm They come, with the sunshine, when waves grow calm. "But we! -- we return! -- we return no more!" The heart's young dreams, when their spring is o'er; The love it hath poured so freely forth -- The boundless trust in ideal worth; The faith in affection -- deep, fond, yet vain -- @3These@1 are the lost that return not again! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FRIENDLY WOOD by PAUL VALERY SUMTER by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL THE VALLEY BROOK by JOHN HOWARD BRYANT THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 18 by OMAR KHAYYAM THE COLISEUM by EDGAR ALLAN POE FRIENDSHIP; A SONNET by ALFRED TENNYSON |