Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 316=398.= "the Return to Ashland.[85]"
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Unfold the silent gates, The Lord of Ashland waits Patient without, to enter his domain; Tell not who sits within, With sad and stricken mien, That he, her soul's beloved, hath come again.
Long hath she watched for him, Till hope itself grew dim, And sorrow ceased to wake the frequent tear; But let these griefs depart, Like shadows from her heart— Tell her, the long expected host is here.
He comes—but not alone, For darkly pressing on, The people pass beneath his bending trees, Not as they came of yore, When torch and banner bore Their part amid exulting harmonies.
But still, and sad, they sweep Amid the foliage deep, Even to the threshold of that mansion gray, Whither from life's unrest, As an eagle seeks his nest, It ever was his wont to flee away.
And he once more hath come To that accustomed home, To taste a calm, life never offered yet; To know a rest so deep, That they who watch and weep, In this vain world may well its peace regret.
[Footnote 85: The home of Henry Clay.]
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=Arthur Cleveland Coxe, 1818-.= (Manual, p. 523.)