Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WOLF CALL, by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WOLF CALL, by                    
First Line: The cry of the wolf in the forest brings me comfort
Last Line: And cry out my own loneliness.
Subject(s): Animals; Grief; Hunger; Solitude; Wilderness; Wolves; Sorrow; Sadness; Loneliness


THE cry of the wolf in the forest brings me comfort.
I know not why that cry rather than another.
But so it is. I know now the loneliness of the human soul.
I know that no physical contact,
Touch of hand, straining embrace;
Nothing of the body, can allay that loneliness,
That hunger of the heart and soul.
I am comforted. For when I knew
That the disease for which there is no cure
Was upon me, I tried to reach my Beloved in a foreign land.
I crossed our Islands; an ocean,
Part of a continent.
Then here, in the desert, the last agony came—here—
I can go no further. I must die
Without the sight of my Beloved
For which I have so hungered;
Without the touch of his hand.
But I am comforted, for I know now
That if I had reached him, even then
Lonely must I have gone out. It is well
That my soul—that part of me
Which could think and feel—
Should go out on the last note of that wolf cry;
The cry that has given me strength,
And clearness of vision to see
The nakedness and the loneliness
Of every human soul.
Put down the gun, I pray,
Friend that has given me shelter.
Spare the wolf a little longer.
He can do no harm there in the forest
For an hour or two.
I would not turn coward at the last,
And cry out my own loneliness.





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