4385918Poems — Away from HomeElizabeth Chase Allen
AWAY FROM HOME.
CROSS my life has dropped a dreary change; These streets are foreign, and these skies are strange; I hear no home-voice all the dull day through: All hearts are alien, and all faces new.
The clouds are heavy, and the day is bleak; In the wild wind the rattling windows creak. I sit alone, and ponder mournfully How strangely I am lost away from thee!
I miss the hand which gave me strength to strive; I miss the love that kept my heart alive; I miss the many masts, the free, fair sea: I lose all things I love, in losing thee!
Alas, alas! since all the wide world through Thou only wast most tender and most true! And though I roam forever, still to me The world is all alike, away from thee.
Ah, when the sunset goldens all the bay And the white sails are resting from their play, Walk where we used to walk, and think of me Who have no longer either masts or sea.
Ah, thou, whose dear eyes watched the way I went, Look toward the city of my banishment! Let me not be forsaken utterly;— Stretch thy fond arms, and hold me close to thee!
CROSS my life has dropped a dreary change; 
CROSS my life has dropped a dreary change; 