Classic Poem

O DEAR adventurer, once more dost thou
Fare forth into the outlands, through far seas!
Nothing can come of strange unto thee now,
For travel was thy wont, thy argosies
Were rich and many; where thy bark was turned
Friends met thee, and for thee a home-light burned.

Surely, some day, as often in the Past,
Keen-eyed and brown, sweet smiling as of yore,
Thou wilt come back to live with us at last,
Thy shadow ever grateful at our door:
Bringing, the while we marvel at thy wares,
An aromatic breath from Otherwheres.
Or if it be that we instead must go
To find thee, friend, all gentle and all true,
Eager and waving wilt thou stand, we know,
To bid us welcome when the voyage is through;
Oh, what a meeting will be there, what flowers,
What talk, what treasures shown, what shining hours!