Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AWAY FROM TOWN, by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP Poet's Biography First Line: High-perched upon a boxcar, I speed, / I speed, to-day Last Line: He longs for a place to stretch in, he hankers for country cheer. Subject(s): Bowery, New York City; Homeless; Wandering & Wanderers; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes | ||||||||
HIGH-PERCHED upon a boxcar, I speed, I speed, to-day: I leave the gaunt gray city some good green miles away, A terrible dream in granite, a riot of streets and brick, A frantic nightmare of people until the soul grows sick Such is the high gray city with the live green waters round Oozing up from the ocean, slipping in from the Sound. I'd put up down in the Bowery for nights in a ten-cent bed Where the dinky "L" trains thunder and rattle overhead; I'd traipsed the barren pavements with the pain of frost in my feet; I'd sidled to hotel kitchens and asked for something to eat. But when the snow went dripping and the young spring came as one Who weeps because of the winter, laughs because of the sun, I thought of a limpid brooklet that bickers thro' reeds all day, And made a streak for the ferry, and rode across in a dray, And, dodging into the Erie where they bunt the boxcars round, I peeled my eye for detectives, and boarded an outward bound. For you know when a man's been cabined in walls for part of the year, He longs for a place to stretch in, he hankers for country cheer. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BUMS, ON WAKING by JAMES DICKEY A FOLK SINGER OF THE THIRTIES by JAMES DICKEY WANDERER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by CLARENCE MAJOR THE WANDERER by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN LONG GONE by STERLING ALLEN BROWN BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON A VAGABOND SONG by BLISS CARMAN A SAILOR CHANTEY (ON BARK 'PESTALLOZI' OFF TRISTAN D'ACUNHA ISLANDS) by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP |
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