Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE MEANING OF IT ALL by EDWARD CARPENTER

First Line: AGES AND AGES BACK
Last Line: UPREARS HIMSELF AGAIN.
Subject(s): CUSTOMS, SOCIAL;
AGES and ages back,
Out of the long grass with infinite pain raising itself into the upright
position,
A creature—fore-runner of Man—with swift eyes glanced around.

So to-day once more,
With pain pain and suffering—driven by what strange instinct—who
can tell?
Out of the great jungle of Custom and supposed Necessity, into a new and
wonderful life, to new and wonderful knowledge,
Surpassing words, surpassing all past experience—the Man, the meaning
of it all,
Uprears himself again.



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