Classic Poem

How welcome came before my sight
That old face seen by this day's light,
Although his cheeks no longer glow
With burning redness; and although
His hair, once black's the glossy crow,
Is white; for when he spoke my name,
I found his voice was still the same
As I had heard in home-ground;

When ruddy suns withdrew the day
From games that we had met to play,
And quoits rose up, in high-bow'd flight,
From strong arms clad in snowy white,
And outstretched hands, and eager sight,
Were bent to stop the flying balls,
With eager strides, and slips, and falls,
On summer grass in home-ground.

There, touching light, with flying feet,
The grassy ground, we ran, wind-fleet;
Or sprang, hound-light, with lofty springs
O'er gate and stream in lively strings;
The while our sisters, in their swings,
Were laughing loud in merry mood,
At play, in blushing maidenhood,
Below the trees in home-ground.

With backs of white and legs of red,
There cackling geese, in summer, fed;
While rustling barley, load by load,
With loose-straw'd sides that hardly show'd
The rolling wheels, so slowly rode
Behind the horses, nodding low
Their halter'd heads, and coming slow
To barton up through home-ground.

When o'er the fields the night lay brown
Ere father yet was come from town,
There stood our mother, list'ning round
With holden breath, to hear the sound
Of horses' footsteps on the ground,
And went in griev'd to find she heard
Naught else but whisp'ring winds that stirr'd
The ashes' leaves in home-ground.

There, north of us, a knoll swell'd high
Before the ever sunless sky,
And trees that bore the rook's high nest
Sprang tall before the stormy west
And keen-air'd east; and left the best
Of winds, the south ones, free to blow
O'er open meadows, in the glow
Of sunshine, up through home-ground.

And so I love the well-known names
We once heard there in youthful games;
Before our mother, hollow-eyed,
Had wept for father that had died;
Or we lost her, all scatter'd wide,
Each struggling in the world alone,
No more to share our mirth now flown
For ever from the home-ground.