Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RETURN, by JOHN BURROUGHS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RETURN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: He sought the old scenes with eager feet
Last Line: He cannot go back to his youth.
Subject(s): Aging; Homecoming; Religion; Theology


He sought the old scenes with eager feet --
The scenes he had known as a boy;
"Oh, for a draught of those fountains sweet,
And a taste of that vanished joy!"

He roamed the fields, he wooed the streams,
His schoolboy paths essayed to trace;
The orchard ways recalled his dreams,
The hills were like his mother's face.

O sad, sad hills! O cold, cold hearth!
In sorrow he learned this truth --
One may return to the place of his birth,
He cannot go back to his youth.





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