“Come back,” ye seem to say; “Ye seek in vain;

We went, we sought, and homeward turned again.

Come back, come back.”

“Come back, come back”; and whither back or why?

To fan quenched hopes, forsaken schemes to try;

Walk the old fields; pace the familiar street;

Dream with the idlers, with the bards compete.

“Come back, come back.”

“Come back, come back”; and whither and for what?

To finger idly some old Gordian knot,