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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VERMONTER DEPARTING by SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN

First Line: HE DROVE ALONE BESIDE HIS SUGAR BUSH
Last Line: ALL THAT LAST HOUR BEFORE THE EVENING TRAIN.
Subject(s): TRAVEL; VERMONT; JOURNEYS; TRIPS;

He drove alone beside his sugar bush;
His measure-pacing horse was not quite slow
Enough to let him fill his deepening eyes
With the wine-washed November afterglow.

In silence sunk, he took the windy turn
Round the gulfed woods, and past the Tories' well.
The falls of Little River in his ears
(Or in his memory!) sounded like a shell.

The mountains had been hidden. Now, near home,
He saw them: Windward, in its barren pride;
Blaze, with its sunset rocks; and Pioneer,
The cloven giant of that countryside.

Their leaflessness, their stillness and their age
He let his spirit drink. He slowed again
His ancient horse, and stayed to look his fill
All that last hour before the evening train.



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