Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GOING BACK HOME, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GOING BACK HOME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's nothing sadder than returning
Last Line: Steeple, and in its shade were planted people who once were chums of mine.
Subject(s): Memory; Old Age; Retrospection


THERE'S nothing sadder than returning, responsive to a heartfelt yearning, to
scenes we used to know; but lately to such scenes I wandered, and with an aching

heart I pondered o'er things of long ago. I used to know a girl named Daisy, who

was so smooth she drove me crazy; of her for years I'd dreamed; and always in my

mental vision, angelic, beautiful, elysian, and bright with youth she seemed.
And in my recent tour I found her with seven husky sons around her, and she was

bent and gray, and worn from cooking hams and fishes, and washing everlasting
dishes, and helping men pitch hay. And all the lads who with me gamboled, and
through the melon patches rambled, on bygone starry nights, were stale, from all

their toil and straining, and hobbled up and down complaining of aches and
chigger bites. The town itself was there, unchanging, the river down its course

was ranging, by hoary elm and pine; the old stone church still reared its
steeple, and in its shade were planted people who once were chums of mine.





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