Charles Hanson Towne

WHEN, sick of all the sorrow and distress

That flourished in the City like foul weeds,

I sought blue rivers and green, opulent meads,

And leagues of unregarded loneliness

Whereon no foot of man had seemed to press,

I did not know how great had been my needs,

How wise the woodland’s gospels and her creeds,

How good her faith to one long comfortless.

But in the silence came a Voice to me;

In every wind it murmured, and I knew

It would not cease, though far my heart might roam.

It called me in the sunrise and the dew,

At noon and twilight, sadly, hungrily,

The jealous City, whispering always—“Home!”