The Return

Leon Gellert 1892 (Australia) – 1977



I have come home again!
Dawn is a dream to me
Lying here, soon to be
Clinging, awaking;
See where ’tis breaking
Mockingly, mistily!
I have come home again!

I have come home again!
Blithe is the day, and clear.
All of my youth is near.
Here with the sun above;
Here with my boyhood, love
Joy, and a tear.
I have come home again!

I have come home again!
Grand is the night to-night.
Stars shed their brightest light;
Shine all their brightest fire;
Shine with their old desire;
Wild with delight!
I have come home again!

I must away again!
Since I have lived this day
Here, now I cannot stay.
Back, with the changing sky,
I must away to die;
Die in the proper way
I must away again!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
45

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbbccxA AddeexA AffggfA AhhcxhA
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 663
Words 134
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7

Leon Gellert

Leon Maxwell Gellert was an Australian poet. He was born in Walkerville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. He was subjected to bullying by his father, a Methodist of Hungarian extraction, to which he reacted by learning self-defence at the YMCA. After an education at Adelaide High School, he embarked on a teaching career; first as a student-teacher at Unley High School then at the University of Adelaide's Teacher Training College. He enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces 10th Battalion within weeks of the outbreak of the Great War and sailed for Cairo on 22 October 1914. He landed at Ari Burnu Beach, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, was wounded and repatriated as medically unfit in June 1916. He attempted to re-enlist but was soon found out. He returned to teaching at Norwood Public School. During periods of inactivity he had been indulging his appetite for writing poetry. Songs of a Campaign was his first published book of verse, and was favourably reviewed by The Bulletin. Angus & Robertson soon published a new edition, illustrated by Norman Lindsay. His second, The Isle of San, also illustrated by Lindsay, was not so well received however. more…

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