Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. ETERNAL HUNGER, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. ETERNAL HUNGER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Eternal hunger! O through the black night
Last Line: Gaze long in silence, friend; gaze long for all are thine
Subject(s): Children; Homeless; Hunger; Pain; Poverty; Childhood; Suffering; Misery


ETERNAL Hunger! O through the black night
Rave, Winds. The forest fanes
Tremble, rock, crash, and ring incessantly
The cry of homeless spirits. Roar
Ye torrents from the mountains. Roar O Sea,
Rave under the pale stars. O gulf of Death
Yawn blackening beneath.
But O great Heart,
O Love greater than all,
Over the mountains the forests and the seas,
O'er the black chasm of death, in spectral haste
Thou ridest, and the hungry winds and waves
Are but Thy hounds: Thou the eternal huntsman!

Great heart and lonely, indomitable in pride
As the pale Titan! a storm-battling eagle
Art thou above the promontory of the world;
Ay, and ah me!
A tender little bird
Wind-blown and baffled from its nest for ever.

Pain, ah! eternal pain.
I hear Aeolian harpings wail and die
Down forest glades, and through the hearts of men,
Pain, pain, eternal pain!
High round the cloud-girt pinnacle of gaunt snow
I hear the wind moan Pain, eternal pain.

O man, O child of Man!
Thou frail and baffled bird, thou weary thing,
Thou strong to suffer, of satanic pride,
I take thee up into this height of pain,
And shew thee all the kingdoms of the earth,
Yea, all the kingdoms of the hearts of men—
The pure and light-strewn kingdoms of strong love:

Gaze long in silence, friend; gaze long for all are thine





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