When the Children Are Away
WHEN the children are away we forget the noise they made,
We forget the sighs for peace that escaped us while they played;
We forget how much we longed to be free to leave it all,
And how lonely we become when the night begins to fall! When the children are away, moved to no more murmurings,
We forget the piercing shrieks, and the marred and broken things;
And the clock so loudly ticks as the night falls, still and bleak,
That it seems as if it tried in its grief to call them back. When the children are away, ghosts of pleasures that are fled
Seem to hover in the rooms and around each little bed;
Home is but an empty word, and how distant seems the day
That shall bring them shouting home — when the children are away!