Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COMMUNINGS WITH THOUGHT, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COMMUNINGS WITH THOUGHT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Return, my thoughts. Come home!
Last Line: Is through eternity!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea


RETURN, my thoughts -- come home!
Ye wild and winged! what do ye o'er the deep?
And wherefore thus the abyss of time o'ersweep,
As birds the ocean-foam?

Swifter than shooting-star,
Swifter than lances of the northern-light,
Upspringing through the purple heaven of night,
Hath been your course afar!

Through the bright battle-clime,
Where laurel boughs make dim the Grecian streams,
And reeds are whispering of heroic themes,
By temples of old time:

Through the north's ancient halls,
Where banners thrilled of yore -- where harp-strings rung;
But grass waves now o'er those that fought and sung,
Hearth-light hath left their walls!

Through forests old and dim,
Where o'er the leaves dread magic seems to brood;
And sometimes on the haunted solitude
Rises the pilgrim's hymn:

Or where some fountain lies,
With lotus-cups through orient spice-woods gleaming!
There have ye been, ye wanderers! idly dreaming
Of man's lost paradise!

Return, my thoughts -- return!
Cares wait your presence in life's daily track,
And voices, not of music, call you back --
Harsh voices, cold and stern!

Oh, no! return ye not!
Still farther, loftier, let your soarings be!
Go, bring me strength from journeyings bright and free,
O'er many a haunted spot.

Go! seek the martyr's grave,
Midst the old mountains, and the deserts vast;
Or, through the ruined cities of the past,
Follow the wise and brave!

Go! visit cell and shrine,
Where woman hath endured! -- through wrong, through scorn,
Uncheered by fame, yet silently upborne
By promptings more divine!

Go, shoot the gulf of death!
Track the pure spirit where no chain can bind,
Where the heart's boundless love its rest may find,
Where the storm sends no breath!

Higher, and yet more high;
Shake off the cumbering chain which earth would lay
On your victorious wings -- mount, mount! Your way
Is through eternity!





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