Page:Poems Toke.djvu/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

98

A homeward bound! right merrily
She ploughs the stormy main,
With many a heart that yearns to see
Fair Albion's shores again.
Returning from that distant land,
Where toilsome years had sped,
They meet the gallant exile band,
Bound the same path to tread.

They meet upon the boundless waste,
The melancholy sea,
And one short hour of converse past,
Speed onward and away.
Brief words exchanged, kind greetings said,
Each, as she hastens on,
And sees the other slowly fade,
Feels doubly now alone.

Sudden they met, too soon to part,—
Yet still that social hour
Has stirred the depths of many a heart
With deep and 'whelming power;
The homeward bound still lingers there,
And blent with struggling sighs,
Man's blessing, woman's tearful prayer,
Breathe on her as she flies.

Does she not seek their Fatherland,
Far o'er the ocean foam,—
Friends, country, all the cherished band
That cluster round their home?