Where Home Was

Victorian Poetry by Augusta Webster

'TWAS yesterday; 'twas long ago:
And for this flaunting grimy street,
And for this crowding to and fro,
And thud and roar of wheels and feet,
Were elm-trees and the linnet's trill,
The little gurgles of the rill,
And breath of meadow-flowers that blow
Ere roses make the summer sweet.

'Twas long ago; 'twas yesterday:
Our peach would just be new with leaves,
The swallow pair that used to lay
Their glimmering eggs beneath our eaves
Would flutter busy with their brood,
And, haply, in our hazel-wood,
Small village urchins hide at play,
And girls sit binding blue-bell sheaves.

Was the house here, or there, or there?
No landmark tells. All changed; all lost;
As when the waves that fret and tear
The fore-shores of some level coast
Roll smoothly where the sea-pinks grew.
All changed, and all grown old anew;
And I pass over, unaware,
The memories I am seeking most.

But where these huddled house-rows spread,
And where this thickened air hangs murk
And the dim sun peers round and red
On stir and haste and cares and work,
For me were baby's daisy-chains,
For me the meetings in the lanes,
The shy good-morrows softly said
That paid my morning's lying lurk.

Oh lingering days of long ago,
Not until now you passed away.
Years wane between and we unknow;
Our youth is always yesterday.
But, like a traveller home who craves
For friends and finds forgotten graves,
I seek you where you dwelt, and, lo,
Even farewells not left to say.

Home     A Bird And Flower     A Coarse Morning     A Comrade     A Song Of A Springtime     A Summer Mood     Autumn Warnings      Baby Eyes     Belated     Betrothed     Beyond The Shadow     Day Is Dead And Let Us Sleep     Dear Love, Goodnight     Dearest, This One Day we Own     Disenchanted     Farewell     Hark The Skylight In The Cloud     Her Memories     In After Years     Late Roses     Linnet And Lark     Miles And Miles     My Loss     News To The King     No News From The War     Not Love     Not To Be     Once A Sea Nymph Loved A Boy     Once     One Star Only For Love's Heaven     Poulain The Prisoner     Question And Answer     Seeds With Wings     Siste Viator     Spring And Summer      St.-Amé     Tell Me Not Of Morrows Sweet    Tell Thee Truth Sweet No    The Apple Orchard     The Bees In The Lime     The Bindweed     The Brambles     The Brook Rhine     The Butterfly     The Cornflower     The Daughter     The First Spring Day     The Flower By The Path     The Flowers to Come     The Flowing Tide     The Frozen River     The Graveyard     The Heart That Lacks Room     The Heather     The Holly     The Lovers     The Missing Star     The Nightingale     The Old Dream     The Old Love     The Oldest Inhabitant     The Pine     The Primrose     The Rivulet     The Sea-Maid's Song     The Skylark's Song     The Snows     The Storm     The Swallows     The Violet And The Rose     The Whisper     The Wind's Tidings     To-Day     Too Soon So Far, Fair Lillies     Waiting      We Two     Where Found Love His Yesterday      While The Woods Were Green     White Rose And Red     Young May

 

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