Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WANDERER, by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: No face I look upon doth greet me Last Line: Again I'll seek my native land! Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, Isaac Subject(s): Homecoming; Wandering & Wanderers | ||||||||
NO FACE I look upon doth greet me With smile that generous welcome lends; No ready hand, with cheerful glow, Is now stretched out, all glad, to meet me: A chill distrust on every brow, Assures me I have here no friends! I miss the music of home voices, The rushing of the mountain flood, My country's birds that blithely sung In woodlands where green May rejoices, Discoursing love when life was young, And mirthful ever was my mood. The breezes soft that fan my cheek, The bower that shades the sun from me, The sky that spans this Southern shore, Do all a different language speak From breeze and bower I loved of yore, And sky that spans my own countree. They bring not health to exiled men -- They light not up the home-bent eye; No, piece-meal wastes the way-worn frame That longs to tread its native glen -- That trembles when it hears the name Of that land where its fathers lie! The sun which shines seems not the sun That rose upon my native fields; Majestic rolls he on his way, A cloudless course hath he to run -- But beams he with the kindly ray He to our Northern landscape yields? The moon that trembles in these skies, Like to an argent mirror sheen -- Ruling with mistless splendour here -- Does she above the mountains rise, And smile upon the waters clear, As in my days of youth I've seen? O beautiful and peerless light, That thou should'st seem unlovely now, That thou should'st fail to wake anew Those looks of heartfelt pure delight, Which youthful Fancy upward threw, While gazing on thy cold, pale brow! But this is not a kindred land, Nor this the old familiar stream; And these are not the friends of youth -- O heartless, loveless, seems this strand -- Its people lack the kindly ruth, The soother of life's turbid dream! Away regret! Here must I die, Remote from all my soul held dear -- My grave, upon an alien shore, Will ne'er attract the passer-by The lonely sleeper to deplore -- No flower will grace the stranger's bier! Winds of the melancholy night, Begin your solemn dirge and bland! The giant clouds are gathering fast, The fearful moon withdraws her light -- In mournful visions of the past, Again I'll seek my native land! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FOLK SINGER OF THE THIRTIES by JAMES DICKEY WANDERER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by CLARENCE MAJOR THE WANDERER: A ROCOCO STUDY (FIRST VERSION) by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE WANDERER by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN LONG GONE by STERLING ALLEN BROWN BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON JEANIE MORRISON by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL |
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