Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE CARTER, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE CARTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So in the dirt, amid the filthy smoke and insensate din of the great city
Last Line: Dwelling also in the youthful carter.
Subject(s): Selfishness


SO in the dirt, amid the filthy smoke and insensate din of the great city,
Into my attic came my friend the carter and sat with me for a while.

Young and worn, these are the words he said:
"Never before could I have believed it, but I see it all now;
There is nothing like it—no happiness—when you have clean dropped
thinking about yourself.
But you must not do it by halves—while ever there is the least grain
of self left it will spoil all;
You must just leave it all behind—and yourself be the same as others;
If they want anything, and you want it, well it is the same who gets it;
You cannot be disappointed then.
I do not say it is not hard, but I know there is nothing—no
happiness—like it;
It is a new life, and them that has never tasted it, they have no idea what
it is."

Thus in the din and dirt of the city, as over the mountain tops and in the
far forests alone with Nature,
I saw the unimaginable form dwelling, whom no mortal eye may see,
The unimaginable form of Man, tenant of the Earth from far ages, seen of
the wise in all times—
Dwelling also in the youthful carter.





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