ONCE only by the garden gate Our lips we joined and parted. I must fulfil an empty fate And travel the uncharted. Hail and farewell! I must arise, Leave here the fatted cattle, And paint on foreign lands and skies My Odyssey of battle. The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a wilful stranger: My mistress still the open road And the bright eyes of danger. Come ill or well, the cross, the crown, The rainbow or the thunder, I fling my soul and body down For God to plough them under. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SHILLIN' A DAY by RUDYARD KIPLING WOONE SMILE MWORE by WILLIAM BARNES UNPERFECTED by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE SHEPHERD'S SONG: A CAROL OR HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS by EDMUND BOLTON AS LOVELY AS THEY by EVA MARBELL BONDI A CONFESSION by JULIET H. CAMPBELL TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. LO! I OPEN A DOOR by EDWARD CARPENTER |