Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Massachusetts Poets. 1922.

The Returning

WE long for her, we yearn for her—

Yes, ardently we yearn

For her return.

Recalling those beloved days

(Days intimate with ways

Of friends so near to us

And life so dear to us),

We yearn unspeakably for her return.

And come she must.… Yet while we trust

We soon may see the passing of this agony

Which makes intrusive years still seem

A fearsome dream,

We know that when she comes

She really comes not back again.

She’ll come in other guise

And under fairer skies—

And yet to bitter pain!

That day she went away

Our homes with laughing youth were filled.

Where then was happiness

Is now distress,

The laughter stilled;

For when she left

Youth followed her—

We stay bereft.

So all our golden joy

For what she brings

Must carry gray alloy:

The sorrow that she can not lay,

The mysery that she can not stay—

While all the gladsome songs she sings

Must bear for undertones

Old sighs and echoed moans.

As they who go away

In flush of youth

May come quite worn and gray

And bringing naught but ruth—

So, when the strife shall cease,

And when she comes at last,

When all the armies vast

Shall at her feet

Kneel down to greet

Thrice welcome Peace,

This world will be so changed

(So many dear ones dead,

So many friends estranged,

So many blessings fled,

So many wonted ways forever barred,

So many coming days forever marred)

That then

She truly comes not back again—

She, the Peace we knew.

Yet how we long for her!

How ardently we yearn

For her return!