Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RETURNING THANKS, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RETURNING THANKS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Take me up, to put me down
Last Line: Thank you, thank you, memory!
Subject(s): Gratitude; Memory; Youth


TAKE me up, to put me down
In the fields of Long Ago,
Where my mother's holiday gown
Always made me think of snow.
Set me at her side again,
Little taller than her knee,
On my mouth a cherry-stain—
Thank you, thank you, Memory!

Grant the mother and the child
There to search in singing hope
Strawberries sweet by being wild
All along the hillside slope.
Make the brother streamlets rush
Bright as comets to the sea,
Warbling almost like a thrush—
Thank you, thank you, Memory!

Comes again the Enchanter's wood,
Loved by me afraid to love,
Where as still as mice we stood
listening for the drowsy dove.
Never shall my heart forget
Mingled fear and lullaby,
Laughing lips and lashes wet—
Thank you, thank you, Memory!

But the dragon! seeming true
Most because he never came
Hungry in the oaks and threw
Double tongues of yard-long flame!
Not to know themselves at all,
This is children's destiny;
Late in life the veilings fall,
Showing childhood, Memory.

Up the hillside in the sun,
Past the home and garden-place,
Past my little self I run,
Till I kiss my mother's face.
Was it thus she took the light
Long ago in summer glee,
Lovelier than a star at night?—
Thank you, thank you, Memory!





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