Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GOING NORTH, by JOHN FREEMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GOING NORTH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: From the soft south where, leaping like a / leopard
Last Line: Death nears with tongue and gestures imbecile.
Subject(s): Aging; Death; Love; Seasons; Time; Dead, The


FROM the soft South where, leaping like a leopard,
Spring runs forth and devours
Lean Winter's feeble hours,
Northward I pass, slowly as the bent shepherd
And gray, drifting sheep
Through pastures still asleep
In April's clutch; and northward yet the slumber
Of wood and fell prolongs,
While May forgets her songs
And last year's leaves the new leaves yet encumber.
Then the keen northern June
Sings a belated tune,
And at last every glen and mountain cleft
With blossom showers:—
While the South cowers,
Her virgin moment past, her beauty reft,
Shamed to recall how she was raped and left.

And so, pursuing love,
Men through their manhood move,
Youth scorched and soon forgot, and Time strides on.
Love comes again, again,
Ever with more of pain,
Ever a surprise, capricious as the sun.
Till hoary, shrewd Age peers
Over the hedge of years,
And love, for love repleading, buys a smile.
Then at last all is dull,
And in the veinèd skull
The eyes stare glazing and affrighted—while
Death nears with tongue and gestures imbecile.





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