Back from a two-years' sentence! <br />And though it had been ten, <br />You think, I were scarred no deeper <br />In the eyes of my fellow-men. <br />'My fellow-men--?' Sounds like a satire, <br />You think-- and I so allow, <br />Here in my home since childhood, <br />Yet more than a stranger now! <br /> <br />Pardon--! Not wholly a stranger--, <br />For I have a wife and child: <br />That woman has wept for two long years, <br />And yet last night she smiled--! <br />Smiled, as I leapt from the platform <br />Of the midnight train, and then-- <br />All that I knew was that smile of hers, <br />And our babe in my arms again! <br /> <br />Back from a two-years' sentence-- <br />But I've thought the whole thing through--, <br />A hint of it came when the bars swung back <br />And I looked straight up in the blue <br />Of the blessed skies with my hat off! <br />O-ho! I've a wife and child: <br />That woman has wept for two long years, <br />And yet last night she smiled!<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/back-from-a-two-years-sentence/
