The Return

Robert William Service

They turned him loose; he bowed his head,
     A felon, bent and grey.
His face was even as the Dead,
     He had no word to say.

He sought the home of his old love,
     To look on her once more;
And where her roses breathed above,
     He cowered beside the door.

She sat there in the shining room;
     Her hair was silver grey.
He stared and stared from out the gloom;
     He turned to go away.

Her roses rustled overhead.
     She saw, with sudden start.
“I knew that you would come,” she said,
     And held him to her heart.

Her face was rapt and angel-sweet;
     She touched his hair of grey;

          . . . . .

But he, sob-shaken, at her feet,
     Could only pray and pray.

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