Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EL EXTRAVIADO, by ALAN SEEGER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EL EXTRAVIADO, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Over the radiant ridges borne out on the offshore wind
Last Line: The infinite glory surrounding, the infinite blue ahead.


Over the radiant ridges borne out on the offshore wind,
I have sailed as a butterfly sails whose priming wings unfurled
Leave the familiar gardens and visited fields behind
To follow a cloud in the east rose-flushed on the rim of the world.

I have strayed from the trodden highway for walking with upturned eyes
On the way of the wind in the treetops, and the drift of
the tinted rack.
For the will to be losing no wonder of sunny or starlit skies
I have chosen the sod for my pillow and a threadbare coat
for my back.

Evening of ample horizons, opaline, delicate, pure,
Shadow of clouds on green valleys, trailed over meadows and trees,
Cities of ardent adventure where the harvests of Joy mature,
Forests whose murmuring voices are amorous prophecies,

World of romance and profusion, still round my journey spread
The glamours, the glints, the enthralments, the nurture of
one whose feet
From hours unblessed by beauty nor lighted by love have fled
As the shade of the tomb on his pathway and the scent of
the winding-sheet.

I never could rest from roving nor put from my heart this need
To be seeing how lovably Nature in flower and face hath wrought, --
In flower and meadow and mountain and heaven where the
white clouds breed
And the cunning of silken meshes where the heart's desire
lies caught.

Over the azure expanses, on the offshore breezes borne,
I have sailed as a butterfly sails, nor recked where the impulse led,
Sufficed with the sunshine and freedom, the warmth and the
summer morn,
The infinite glory surrounding, the infinite blue ahead.








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