Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. A NEW LIFE, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. A NEW LIFE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Henceforth I propound a new life for you
Last Line: Your own your native abode.
Subject(s): Nature


HENCEFORTH I propound a new life for you-that you should bring the peace
and grace of Nature into all your daily life—being freed from vain
striving.
The freed soul, passing disengaged into the upper air, forgetful of self,
Rising again in others, ever knowing itself again in others.

The villa stands with its picturesque gables and garden, its rhododendrons
all in flower, and exotic firs, with clumps of tulips;
The ploughman to his horses clicks and calls all day in the midst of the
vocal landscape;
The rivers wind lazily about the land; the slow air floats on from the West
and South, bringing on its bosom long-promised gifts.
Out of houses and closed rooms, out of the closed prison of self which you
have inhabited so long;
Into the high air which circles round the world, the region of human
equality,
With outspread wings balanced, resting on that which is not self,
Floating high up as a condor over the mountains in aerial suspense,
Or as an eagle flying screaming over the cities of the earth, with joy
delirious—
So passing enfranchised shall you regain after long captivity
Your own your native abode.





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