As one who having wandered all night long In a perplexed forest, comes at length In the first hours, about the matin song, And when the sun uprises in his strength, To the fringed margin of the wood, and sees, Gazing afar before him, many a mile Of falling country, many fields and trees, And cities and bright streams and far-off Ocean's smile: I, O Melampus, halting, stand at gaze: I, liberated, look abroad on life, Love, and distress, and dusty travelling ways, The steersman's helm, the surgeon's helpful knife, On the lone ploughman's earth-upturning share, The revelry of cities and the sound Of seas, and mountain-tops aloof in air, And of the circling earth the unsupported round: I, looking, wonder: I, intent, adore; And, O Melampus, reaching forth my hands In adoration, cry aloud and soar In spirit, high above the supine lands And the low caves of mortal things, and flee To the last fields of the universe untrod, Where is no man, nor any earth, nor sea, And the contented soul is all alone with God. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DECEPTION PASS; FOR JUDY AND MARK KAWASAKI by KAREN SWENSON TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME by ROBERT HERRICK COMMON DUST by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ESCAPE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MY LITTLE DREAMS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A SONNET, TO THE NOBLE LADY, THE LADY MARY WROTH by BEN JONSON |