Caroling Dusk/Return

by Sterling Allen Brown

For works with similar titles, see Return.

RETURN

I have gone back in boyish wondermentTo things that I had foolishly put by. . . .Have found an alien and unknown contentIn seeing how some bits of cloud-filled skyAre framed in bracken pools; through chuckling hoursHave watched the antic frogs, or curiouslyHave numbered all the unnamed, vagrant flowers,That fleck the unkempt meadows, lavishly.

Or where a headlong toppling stream has stayedIts racing, lulled to quiet by the songBursting from out the thickleaved oaken shade,There I have lain while hours sauntered past—I have found peacefulness somewhere at last,Have found a quiet needed for so long.