Back to Old Clark County

James Hillary Mulligan

Recited by its author at the Commercial Club banquet, in Winchester, Kentucky, November 15, 1905.

I am weary of the wandering,
The waiting and the pondering,
The shadows kindly lengthen out their warning;
And IVe come to the conclusion,
Inspiration or illusion,
And I'm back to sweet Clark County in the morning.

The years loiter still and dreary,
Musing voices hale and cheery.
Old memories around my heart are storming;
And the saddened days forlorn
But lengthen out the cheerless morn.
And I'm off to sweet Clark County in the morning.

And though the years a-many be,
A scene comes often back to me,
A homestead quaint and landscape fair adorning.
Yet an incense floats too often.
And this makes the heart to soften.
And I'm off to sweet Clark County in the morning.

Wandering wide in stranger lands,
I've felt the clasp of kindly hands,
And while no thrill of friendship pulses scorning;
Of a truth, in nothing vaunting.
Other than a something wanting —
And I'm off to sweet Clark County in the morning.