To One Who Comes Now And Then

When you come in, it seems a brighter fire

Crackles upon the hearth invitingly,

The household routine which was wont to tire                        ,

Grows full of novelty.

You sit upon our home-upholstered chair

And talk of matters wonderful and strange,

Of books, and travel, customs old which dare

The gods of Time and Change.

Till we with inner word our care refute

Laughing that this our bosoms yet assails,

While there are maidens dancing to a flute

In Andalusian vales.

And sometimes from my shelf of poems you take

And secret meanings to our hearts disclose,

As when the winds of June the mid bush shake

We see the hidden rose.

And when the shadows muster, and each tree

A moment flutters, full of shutting wings,

You take the fiddle and mysteriously

Wake wonders on the strings.

And in my garden, grey with misty flowers,

Low echoes fainter than a beetle's horn

Fill all the corners with it, like sweet showers

Of bells, in the owl's morn.

Come often, friend, with welcome and surprise

We'll greet you from the sea or from the town;

Come when you like and from whatever skies

Above you smile or frown.

This poem taken from "Last Songs" by Francis Ledwidge, Published by Herbert Jenkins, London 1918 [page 67-69]Poem Dated: Belgium, July 22nd, 1917.Words and spelling verified JS