Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PENITENT'S RETURN, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PENITENT'S RETURN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: My father's house once more
Last Line: Take back the lost and found!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Penance


MY father's house once more,
In its own moonlight beauty! Yet around,
Something, amidst the dewy calm profound,
Broods, never marked before!

Is it the brooding night?
Is it the shivery creeping on the air,
That makes the home so tranquil and so fair,
O'erwhelming to my sight?

All solemnized it seems,
And stilled, and darkened in each time-worn hue,
Since the rich, clustering roses met my view,
As now, by starry gleams.

And this high elm, where last
I stood and lingered -- where my sisters made
Our mother's bower -- I deemed not that it cast
So far and dark a shade!

How spirit-like a tone
Sighs through yon tree! My father's place was there
At evening hours, while soft winds waved his hair!
Now those gray locks are gone!

My soul grows faint with fear!
Even as if angel-steps had marked the sod.
I tremble where I move -- the voice of God
Is in the foliage here!

Is it indeed the night
That makes my home so awful? Faithless-hearted!
'Tis that from thine own bosom hath departed
The inborn, gladdening light!

No outward thing is changed;
Only the joy of purity is fled,
And, long from nature's melodies estranged,
Thou hear'st their tones with dread.

Therefore the calm abode,
By thy dark spirit, is o'erhung with shade;
And therefore, in the leaves, the voice of God
Makes thy sick heart afraid!

The night-flowers round that door
Still breathe pure fragrance on the untainted air;
Thou, thou alone art worthy now no more
To pass, and rest thee there!

And must I turn away? --
Hark, hark! -- it is my mother's voice I hear --
Sadder than once it seemed -- yet soft and clear; --
Doth she not seem to pray?

My name! -- I caught the sound!
Oh! blessed tone of love -- the deep, the mild!
Mother! my mother! now receive thy child:
Take back the lost and found!





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