The Return
O, hedges white with laughing may,O, meadows where we met,This heart of mine will break to-dayUnless ye, too, forget.
Breathe not so sweet, breathe not so sweet,But swiftly let me passAcross the fields that felt her feetIn the old time that was.
A year ago, but one brief year,O, happy flowering land,We wandered here and whispered there,And hand was warm in hand.
O, crisp white clouds beyond the hill,O, lavrock in the skies,Why do ye all remember stillHer bright uplifted eyes.
Red heather on the windy moor,Wild thyme beside the way,White jasmine by the cottage door,Harden your hearts to-day.
Smile not so kind, smile not so kind,Thou happy haunted place,Or thou wilt strike these poor eyes blindWith her remembered face.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Return is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, The Return, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/the-return.html, id L21482.
Form and metre
The Return is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB mayA · metB · dayA · forgetB
- 2 A-A- sweetA · pass · feetA · was
- 3 ABAB yearA · landB · thereA · handB
- 4 ABAB hillA · skiesB · stillA · eyesB
- 5 -A-A moor · wayA · door · dayA
- 6 ABAB kindA · placeB · blindA · faceB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O, hedges white with laughing may, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| O, meadows where we met, | 6 | ·/···· |
| This heart of mine will break to-day | 8 | ········ |
| Unless ye, too, forget. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Breathe not so sweet, breathe not so sweet, | 8 | ········ |
| But swiftly let me pass | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Across the fields that felt her feet | 8 | ˘/······ |
| In the old time that was. | 6 | ······ |
| A year ago, but one brief year, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| O, happy flowering land, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| We wandered here and whispered there, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And hand was warm in hand. | 6 | ······ |
| O, crisp white clouds beyond the hill, | 8 | ········ |
| O, lavrock in the skies, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Why do ye all remember still | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Her bright uplifted eyes. | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Red heather on the windy moor, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Wild thyme beside the way, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| White jasmine by the cottage door, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Harden your hearts to-day. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Smile not so kind, smile not so kind, | 8 | ········ |
| Thou happy haunted place, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Or thou wilt strike these poor eyes blind | 8 | ········ |
| With her remembered face. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.