TO THE 'REFUGEES' OF THE BOSTON AUTHORS CLUB by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

Right welcome, adventurers all!
We rejoice in your happy release
From war's overpowering thrall
To our country of modified peace.

You have harrowing stories to tell,
Of loss, and vexation, and worse;
And that I may harrow as well,
I give you a welcome in verse.

You left from cares to get free,
They came in a double flood;
You left on a watery sea,
You return on a sea of blood.

You went as lions gallant,
But your leonine glory shrunk;
Far better the elephant,
With his non-detachable trunk!

You thought, as you went aboard,
That ink was the solvent of men;
You found there are times when the sword
Is mightier far than the pen.

Henceforth when the wandering fit
Is upon you ready to burst,
You will think the better of it,
And see America first.

You went to delve in the lore
Of the best that all ages have found;
But the books were spattered with gore,
The libraries burned to the ground.

You went to revel in art,
In Time's most majestic remains;
You found, with a bleeding heart,
Vast heaps of smouldering fanes.

You went to learn in the school
Of government's rational source;
But you found a world in the rule
Of brutal, tyrannical force.

What journeyings ever were kenned
That closed in more desolate moans?
You went to the rainbow's end
And found there a pot of bones.

But ah, the books you will write
As you muse on these horrible scenes;
And the poems you all will indite
And send to the magazines!

A new "Utopia, or
The Country where Combats Cease";
A new Inferno of war,
And an Iliad of peace!

But most of all you will praise
This land of the brave and the free,
With a President mild in his ways,
And a thousand leagues of sea!

Now far may your thoughts expand,
And firm be your fountain pen!
And here is a welcoming hand:
We are glad you are home again!

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