MEMORY

If I ever go back to Baltimore,

The city of Maryland,

I shall miss again as I missed before

A thousand things of the world in store,

The story standing in every door

That beckons with every hand.

I shall not know where the bonds were riven

And a hundred faiths set free,

Where a wandering cavalier had given

Her hundredth name to the Queen of Heaven,

And made oblation of feuds forgiven

To Our Lady of Liberty.

I shall not travel the tracks of fame

Where the war was not to the strong;

When Lee the last of the heroes came

With the Men of the South and a flag like flame,

And called the land by its lovely name

In the unforgotten song.

If ever I cross the sea and stray

To the city of Maryland,

I will sit on a stone and watch or pray

For a stranger's child that was there one day:

And the child will never come back to play,

And no-one will understand.