Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. AFTER CIVILISATION (2), by EDWARD CARPENTER Poet's Biography First Line: In the first soft winds of spring, while snow yet lay on the ground Last Line: Looking out over the earth, on which he was once a mortal. Subject(s): Democracy; Life Change Events; Modern Man | ||||||||
IN the first soft winds of spring, while snow yet lay on the ground Forth from the city into the great woods wandering, Into the great silent white woods where they waited in their beauty and majesty For man their companion to come: There, in vision, out of the wreck or cities and civilisations, I saw a new life arise. Slowly out of the ruins of the pastlike a young fern-frond uncurling out of its own brown litter Out of the litter of a decaying society, out of the confused mass of broken down creeds, customs, ideals, Out of distrust and unbelief and dishonesty, and Fear, meanest of all (the stronger in the panic trampling the weaker underfoot); Out of miserable rows of brick tenements with their cheapjack interiors, their glances of suspicion, and doors locked against each other; Out of the polite residences of congested idleness; out of the aimless life of wealth; Out of the dirty workshops of evil work, evilly done; Out of the wares which are no wares poured out upon the markets, and in the shop-windows, The fraudulent food, clothing, drink, literature; Out of the cant of Commercebuying cheap and selling dearthe crocodile sympathy of nation with nation, The smug merchant posing as a benefactor of his kind, the parasite parsons and scientists; The cant of Sex, the impure hush clouding the deepest instincts of boy and girl, woman and man; The despair and unbelief possessing all societyrich and poor, educated and ignorant, the money-lender, the wage-slave, the artist and the washerwoman alike; All feeling the terrible pressure and tension of the modern problem: Out of the litter and muck of a decaying world, Lo! even so I saw a new life arise. The winter woods stretched all around so still! Every bough laden with snowthe faint purple waters rushing on in the hollows, with steam on the soft still air! Far aloft the arrowy larch reached into the sky, the high air trembled with the music of the loosened brooks. O sound of waters, jubilant, pouring pouringO hidden song in the hollows! Secret of the earth, swelling sobbing to divulge itself! Slowly, building lifting itself up atom by atom, Gathering itself together round a new centreor rather round the world-old centre once more revealed I saw a new life, a new society, arise. Man I saw arising once more to dwell with Nature; [The old old storythe prodigal son returning, so loved, The long estrangement, the long entanglement in vain things] The child returning to its home, companion of the winter woods once more, Companion of the stars and waters, hearing their words at first hand (more than all science ever taught), The near contact, the dear dear mother so close, the twilight sky and the young tree-tops against it; The huts on the mountain-side, companionable of the sun and the winds, the lake unsullied below; The daily bath in natural running waters, or in the parallel foam-lines of the sea, the pressure of the naked foot to the earth; The few needs, the exhilarated radiant lifethe food and population question giving no more trouble; [No hurry more, no striving one to override the other: Fach one doing the work before him to do, and taking his chance of the reward, Doubting no more of his reward than the hand doubts, or the foot, to which the blood flows according to the use to which it is put;] The plentiful common halls stored with the products of Art and History and Science to supplement the simple household accommodations; The sweet and necessary labor of the day; All these I sawfor man the companion of Nature. Civilisation behind him nowthe wonderful stretch of the past; Continents, empires, religions, wars, migrationsall gathered up in him; The immense knowledge, the vast winged powersto use or not to use He comparatively indifferent, passing on to other spheres of interest. The calm which falls after long strife, the dignity of rest after toil; Hercules, his twelve labors done, sitting as a god on the great slope of Olympus, Looking out over the Earth, on which he was once a mortal. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARICK STREET by ELIZABETH BISHOP WASP SEX MYTH (TWO) by ANSELM HOLLO DANCING WITH WOLVES by PRIMUS ST. JOHN PRAYER, OR NOSTALGIA FOR HEAVEN by DENISE DUHAMEL THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN WHO'S WHO by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT AS A MOULD FOR SOME FAIR FORM by EDWARD CARPENTER |
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