| |
1902
WHEN the darkened Fifties dip to the North, | |
| And frost and the fog divide the air, | |
| And the day is dead at his breaking-forth, | |
| Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear! | |
| |
| Far to Southward they wheel and glance, | 5 |
| The million molten spears of morn— | |
| The spears of our deliverance | |
| That shine on the house where we were born. | |
| |
| Flying-fish about our bows, | |
| Flying sea-fires in our wake: | 10 |
| This is the road to our Father’s House, | |
| Whither we go for our souls’ sake! | |
| |
| We have forfeited our birthright, | |
| We have forsaken all things meet; | |
| We have forgotten the look of light, | 15 |
| We have forgotten the scent of heat. | |
| |
| They that walk with shaded brows, | |
| Year by year in a shining land, | |
| They be men of our Father’s House, | |
| They shall receive us and understand. | 20 |
| |
| We shall go back by the boltless doors, | |
| To the life unaltered our childhood knew— | |
| To the naked feet on the cool, dark floors, | |
| And the high-ceiled rooms that the Trade blows through: | |
| |
| To the trumpet-flowers and the moon beyond, | 25 |
| And the tree-toad’s chorus drowning all— | |
| And the lisp of the split banana-frond | |
| That talked us to sleep when we were small. | |
| |
| The wayside magic, the threshold spells, | |
| Shall soon undo what the North has done— | 30 |
| Because of the sights and the sounds and the smells | |
| That ran with our youth in the eye of the sun. | |
| |
| And Earth accepting shall ask no vows, | |
| Nor the Sea our love, nor our lover the Sky. | |
| When we return to our Father’s House | 35 |
| Only the English shall wonder why! | |
| |
