FROM the Past and Unavailing Out of cloudland we are steering: After groping, after fearing, Into starlight we come trailing, And we find the stars are true. Still, O comrade, what of you? You are gone, but we are sailing, And the old ways are all new. For the Lost and Unreturning We have drifted, we have waited; Uncommanded and unrated, We have tossed and wandered, yearning For a charm that comes no more From the old lights by the shore: We have shamed ourselves in learning What you knew so long before. For the Breed of the Far-going Who are strangers, and all brothers, May forget no more than others Who looked seaward with eyes flowing. But are brothers to bewail One who fought so foul a gale? You have won beyond our knowing, You are gone, but yet we sail. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WAKING YEAR by EMILY DICKINSON THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK: FIT 3. THE BAKER'S TALE by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON THE OLD VIOLIN by MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN THE OLD BRIDGE AT FLORENCE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE SEARCH (1) by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL BETROTHED ANEW by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR by ALFRED TENNYSON |