|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WAYFARING TREE, by JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN Poet's Biography First Line: We %old bachelor bards, having none to mind us Last Line: Alone at night under age's wayfaring %tree! | |||
We Old bachelor bards, having none to mind us, Are seized at seasons with such a heart-aching That, leaving home and its wants behind us, We hie elsewhither, the spirit's car taking Us east and west, and aloft and nether, And thus I, also, both night and day faring From Hartz to Hellas, pass weeks together (In vision) under mine old WayfaringTree, My childhood's dearly belovèd WayfaringTree! Free Of pinion then, like the lonely pewit, I watch through Autumn its golden leaves dropping, And list the sighs of the winds that woo it- A somewhat silly but sinless eavesdropping!- And sadly ponder those rosy dream-hours When Boyhood's fancies went first a-May-Fairing. Ah! we may smile, but the joys that seem ours Soon leave us mourners beneath our WayfaringTree, Insolvent mourners beneath our WayfaringTree! Me No Muse amuses or flatters longer, No couplet cozens, no trashy trope bubbles, Yet, though my judgment grows daily stronger, I love this blowing of psychic soap-bubbles. The soul tends always in one direction, Its course is homeward: and, like a fay faring Through airy space, even each deflection But brings it nearer its destined WayfaringTree. Its way is short to its final WayfaringTree. See, Oh, see to your ways then, my mad young masters, Blind pleasure-chasers and headstrong high-fliers, Nor tempt your fate for those dark disasters Which make, alas! the best hopes of Life liars. And you, ye grubbers of dirt and dollars, Whose dungeoned hearts fear a fresh and safe airing, Think how Experience plants all her scholars Alone at last under Age's WayfaringTree! Alone at Night under Age's WayfaringTree | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest... |
| |