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