A First Series of Hymns and Songs/Descriptive Songs/The Traveller's Return
10. The Traveller's Return.
Sweet to the early wayfarer
The song amid the sky,
Where twinkling in the dewy light,
The sky-lark soars on high;
And cheering to the wayfarer
The gales that o'er him play,
When faint and heavily he drags
Along his noon-tide way.
And when beneath the unclouded sky
Full wearily toils he,
The flowing water makes to him
A soothing melody.
And when the daylight wanes away,
And all is calm around,
There is sweet music to his ear
In the distant sheep-bell's sound.
And sweet the village curfew-bell,
As shades of night appear,
That marks his weary journey's bourn,
And tells that home is near.
But, oh! of all delightful sounds,
Of evening or of morn,
Far sweetest is the voice of love
That welcomes his return.