Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RETURN by CLEMENT WOOD

First Line: BACK TO THE EARTH,' A VOICE WHISPERS
Last Line: FLAME UP TO THEIR UNLEGISLATED BEAUTY.
"Back to the earth," a voice whispers,
"Back to the bare bosom of the ground;
To the shaggy-haired pines, and the pungent carpet beneath;
To the lisp of waves, chiding our forgetfulness;
To the whispered wind, and its roaring summons on high peaks,
And the hurled lightning,
Arms spread, breast bared, to clasp it!"

A cultured onlooker counsels,
"But this is regression, retreat!
Rather plunge forward into the roar of modern life,
The whir of machinery, the red furnace gleam
On the glistening backs of half-naked toilers,
The unleashed passion of labor against capital,
With a fantasied and regulated Utopia
Gleaming at the end of the way
Like a Dore illustration
Of New Jerusalem!
This is the part of modern man."

Shall I refuse to look at the moon
Until it adopts an 8-hour day?
Shall I close myself from the sun's glow
Till it readjust its wasteful routine?
Shall I condemn the starry dipper as inartistic and unhygienic
When compared with individual drinking cups?
Shall I banish Sirius and the Milky Way
Until they have received the benignant civilized blessings
Of life today?

Back to the earth!
Back to the wind and the tempest's flame
And the wheeling stars.
Give them a wide gesture of greeting;
Let their high harmony flow into your stumbling soul;
Flame up to their unlegislated beauty.



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