The night-damp air strikes deep to weary bone While moonlight coldly shapes the mountainside, And through clenched teeth cramped muscles force a groan. I would go back to warmer ways and tried: Descend to shrilling talk and smoke-filled rooms; Would warm these veins with bubbling purple wine, And calm this brain with its be-musing fumes, Relax and rest, content such ways were mine. I will return again to tinsel nights And spun-glass laughter of a careless eve -- Ten-cent-store baubles flashing colored lights, Bewitching stranger-eyes with make-believe! This vertigo is one which preys on all Who set their feet to climb a mountain wall. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CROSS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON GRAND ARMY PLAZA by KAREN SWENSON A LIFE-LESSON by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY THE LADY'S DRESSING ROOM by JONATHAN SWIFT THE DAY-DREAM: MORAL by ALFRED TENNYSON JANUARY MORNING by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE SECOND MOTHERHOOD by ST. CLAIR ADAMS WE'LL GO NO MORE THE WOODLAND WAY by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE |