Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


VAGABOND'S VERSE by GRAYCE COLE CLYMER

First Line: NOT FOR ME THE BRIGHT, CLEAN HEARTH NOR A WOMAN'S CLINGING
Last Line: FOR I'M A VAGABOND -- SET APART -- AND MY HOME'S WHERE I HANG MY HAT!
Subject(s): GUILT; HOMESICKNESS; WANDERING & WANDERERS; WANDERLUST; VAGABONDS; TRAMPS; HOBOES;

Not for me the bright, clean hearth nor a woman's clinging hands!
Give me the smell of pungent earth and the sweep of desert sands!
For within me lies a ceaseless yearn to wander, wander ever
Out where gypsy campfires burn; constant I am never!

Every morn when the blazing sun rises over the hill,
Rise I, too, and wander on, feeling my pulses thrill
To the wild delight of a vagrant breeze and a newer, stranger road,
Singing a drifter's melodies, carrying never a load
Of trouble or care. I'm fancy-free and wild as the western wave;
I take whatever comes to me, and it's little that I crave.

Alone I search for a Promised Land where chance and change may dwell,
But sometimes I think of a tender hand that clasped mine in farewell;
And then I curse my wayward heart -- but what is the good of that?
For I'm a vagabond -- set apart -- and my home's where I hang my hat!



Home: PoetryExplorer.net