Robert Herrick: His Return To London.

HIS RETURN TO LONDON.
by Robert Herrick

FROM the dull confines of the drooping West
To see the day spring from the pregnant East,
Ravish'd in spirit I come, nay, more, I fly
To thee, bless'd place of my nativity !
Thus, thus with hallowed foot I touch the ground,
With thousand blessings by thy fortune crown'd.
O fruitful Genius ! that bestowest here
An everlasting plenty, year by year.
O place ! O people ! Manners ! fram'd to please
All nations, customs, kindreds, languages !
I am a free-born Roman ; suffer, then,
That I amongst you live a citizen.
London my home is : though by hard fate sent
Into a long and irksome banishment ;
Yet since call'd back ; henceforward let me be,
O native country, repossess'd by thee !
For, rather than I'll to the West return,
I'll beg of thee first here to have mine urn.
Weak I am grown, and must in short time fall ;
Give thou my sacred relics burial.

Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol II.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 50.

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