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 POET SPEAKS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BALLADE OF DEAD LADIES by FRANCOIS VILLON THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL A DEDICATION by ALFRED TENNYSON SONNET: AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |