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THOUGHTS OF HOME.[1]
I watched them from the window, thy children at their play,
And I thought of all my own dear friends, who were far, oh, far away,
And childish loves, and childish cares, and a child's own buoyant gladness
Came gushing back again to me with a soft and solemn sadness;
And feelings frozen up full long, and thoughts of long ago,
Seemed to be thawing at my heart with a warm and sudden flow.
I looked upon thy children, and I thought of all and each,
Of my brother and my sister, and our rambles on the beach,
Of my mother's gentle voice, and my mother's beckoning hand,
And all the tales she used to tell of the far, far English land;
And the happy, happy evening hours, when I sat on my father's knee,—
Oh! many a wave is rolling now betwixt that seat and me!
- ↑ This little poem was written when Arthur Clough was ill at school, and from the window of his room had been watching Dr. Arnold's younger children at play. It has been extracted, together with the two following, from the 'Rugby Magazine,' as a specimen of his earliest style, and as throwing some light upon the thoughts that occupied his mind at school.
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