Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in The Cabinet of Modern Art, 1837/The Welcome
THE WELCOME
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THE WELCOME.
BY MISS L. E. LANDON.
I.
Fling the banners from the battlements—
Hang garlands on the walls!—
Today Lord Ulric comes again
To his ancestral halls.
II.
Long time he has been absent—
Long time with sword in hand;—
Now they have tamed the crescent
In every christian land.
III.
The boy he left an infant
He will not find the same,—
The feet can run the greensward,
The lips can name his name.
IV.
There are three that now await him,
And bless the ended strife,—
The boy that will not know him,
His sister, and his wife.
V.
His sister waiteth tenderly,—
But, in her hidden heart,
She thinketh of another,
With whom she wept to part.
VI.
The child is all impatience—
With many a childish word,
He questions of his father,
And of his horse and sword.
VII.
But one is thinking only
Of him—the victor knight;—
She trembles at the honours
He has achieved in fight.
VIII.
Still doth her pale lip quiver
At dangers that are done;—
Ah, sadly to a woman
Her warrior's praise is won!
IX.
She gazes on the distance,
Until her eyes are dim,
And not a cloud that passes
But she believes it him.
X.
Night after night, her vigils
Have worn away her bloom;
How often has she started
Beside a fancied tomb!
XI.
There is no love like woman's,—
By distance made more dear;
That grows more true and tender
With every falling tear.
XII.
She is pale with joy—she sees him!
The warrior-chief is come!
She looks—she cannot speak it—
"Lord Ulric, welcome home!"