Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NIGHT VOYAGE, by CALE YOUNG RICE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NIGHT VOYAGE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There is no climate for stars. But upon earth
Last Line: On a necessitous planet? Can the stars answer?
Subject(s): Night; Sailing & Sailors; Stars; Travel; Bedtime; Journeys; Trips


There is no climate for stars. But upon earth,
Where cloud-winds of evil blow unpeaceably,
Imagination, the primal aviator,
Voyages ever unstably. Waking at night
And fueled by the quick memories of day,
It takes off with troubled foreboding to round
Our yet uncharted sphere -- over huge longitudes
That rib seas and continents, through great mountain-gates
That lead by river trails to turbid plain-cities,
Then on, down, and under, until returning
It reaches the bitter hangar of the breast.
Everywhere under the flight the loud surge
Of living and dying comes up, and, pitiably,
The procreative pageant of humanity
Writhing toward no certain goal but death.
What shall be done that a million years have not done
To ease the valiant anguish it wings over;
To heal men of the hurt of being men
On a necessitous planet? Can the stars answer?





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