Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOME-RETURNING, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HOME-RETURNING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis we who live that vagrants are; the dead
Last Line: The home-returning!
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Death; Grief; Home; Love; Wandering & Wanderers; Estrangement; Outcasts; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes


'TIS we who live that vagrants are; the dead
Are not poor outcasts from our love, but rather
The seeking souls who earlier have sped
To where friends gather.

Just every little while, one slips away;
Almost we hear their greeting from those others:
Our loss must make for them a happy day,
Brothers to brothers!

We who remain draw closer each to each;
We smile as best we may with each to-morrow;
But oh, our spirits know there is no speech
To tell our sorrow!

Not theirs the grief, we say, not theirs the grief;
Our ranks grow thin, while theirs increase for ever:
No hearth a-cold, no falling of the leaf,
No friends that sever.

Until we long to be of their good cheer;
Oh, with what heartfelt, wistful yearning
To join that company, select and dear,
The home-returning!





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