Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AMORIS EXSUL: 14. THE WANDERERS, by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Wandering, ever wandering Last Line: But god has given you freedom, wanderers! Subject(s): Wandering & Wanderers | ||||||||
Wandering, ever wandering, Their eyelids freshened with the wind of the sea Blown up the cliffs at sunset, their cheeks cooled With meditative shadows of hushed leaves That have been drowsing in the woods all day, And certain fires of sunrise in their eyes. They wander, and the white roads under them Crumble into fine dust behind their feet, For they return not; life, a long white road, Winds ever from the dark into the dark, And they, as days, return not; they go on For ever, with the travelling stars; the night Curtains them, being wearied, and the dawn Awakens them unwearied; they go on. They know the winds of all the earth, they know The dust of many highways, and the stones Of cities set for landmarks on the road. Theirs is the world, and all the glory of it, Theirs, because they forego it, passing on Into the freedom of the elements; Wandering, ever wandering, Because life holds not anything so good As to be free of yesterday, and bound Towards a new-born to-morrow; and they go Into a world of unknown faces, where It may be there are faces waiting them, Faces of friendly strangers, not the long Intolerable monotony of friends. The joy of earth is yours, O wanderers, The only joy of the old earth, to wake. As each new dawn is patiently renewed, With foreheads fresh against a fresh young sky. To be a little further on the road, A little nearer somewhere, some few steps Advanced into the future, and removed By some few counted milestones from the past; God gives you this good gift, the only gift That God, being repentant, has to give. Wanderers, you have the sunrise and the stars; And we, beneath our comfortable roofs, Lamplight, and daily fire upon the hearth, And four walls of a prison, and sure food. But God has given you freedom, wanderers! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FOLK SINGER OF THE THIRTIES by JAMES DICKEY WANDERER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by CLARENCE MAJOR THE WANDERER: A ROCOCO STUDY (FIRST VERSION) by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE WANDERER by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN LONG GONE by STERLING ALLEN BROWN BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON NERVES by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS |
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