I WANT to go wandering. Who shall declare I will regret if I dare? To the rich days of age— To some mid-afternoon— A wide fenceless prairie, A lonely old tune, Ant-hills and sunflowers, And sunset too soon. Behind the brown mountain The sun will go down; I shall climb, I shall climb, To the sumptuous crown; To the rocks of the summit, And find some strange things:— Some echo of echoes When the thunder-wind sings; Old Spanish necklaces, Indian rings, Or a feeble old eagle With great, dragging wings. He may leave me and soar; But if he shall die, I shall bury him deep While the thunder-winds cry. And there, as the last of my earth-nights go: What is the thing I shall know? With a feather cast off from his wings I shall write, be it revel or psalm, Or whisper of redwood, or cypress, or palm,— The treasure of dream that he brings. The soul of the eagle will call, Whether he lives or he dies:— The cliff and the prairie call, The sage-brush and starlight sing, And the songs of my far-away Sangamon call From the plume of the bird of the Rockies, And midnight's omnipotent wing— The last of my earth-nights will ring With cries from a far haunted river, and all of my wandering, Wandering, Wandering, Wandering. ... | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOKEN AT A CASTLE GATE by DONALD (GRADY) DAVIDSON THE SCHOLAR GIPSY by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE SHIPWRECK, SELECTION by WILLIAM FALCONER ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN 1782 by ALFRED TENNYSON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 34. AL-'AZIZ by EDWIN ARNOLD |