Living

Home

by Edward Thomas 1878–1917

From Collected Poems (1920)

Living

Not the end: but there's nothing more.
Sweet Summer and Winter rude
I have loved, and friendship and love,
The crowd and solitude:

But I know them: I weary not;
But all that they mean I know.
I would go back again home
Now. Yet how should I go?

This is my grief. That land,
My home, I have never seen;
No traveller tells of it,
However far he has been.

And could I discover it,
I fear my happiness there,
Or my pain, might be dreams of return
Here, to these things that were.

Remembering ills, though slight
Yet irremediable,
Brings a worse, an impurer pang
Than remembering what was well.

No: I cannot go back,
And would not if I could.
Until blindness come, I must wait
And blink at what is not good.

MLA

Thomas, Edward. “Home.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/thomas_e/123/.

Chicago

Thomas, Edward. “Home.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/thomas_e/123/.

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