The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses/Memory

by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

For works with similar titles, see Memory.

MEMORY

If I ever go back to Baltimore,The city of Maryland,I shall miss again as I missed beforeA thousand things of the world in store,The story standing in every doorThat beckons with every hand.

I shall not know where the bonds were rivenAnd a hundred faiths set free,Where a wandering cavalier had givenHer hundredth name to the Queen of Heaven,And made oblation of feuds forgivenTo Our Lady of Liberty.

I shall not travel the tracks of fameWhere the war was not to the strong;When Lee the last of the heroes cameWith the Men of the South and a flag like flame,And called the land by its lovely nameIn the unforgotten song.

If ever I cross the sea and strayTo the city of Maryland, I will sit on a stone and watch or prayFor a stranger's child that was there one day:And the child will never come back to play,And no-one will understand.