I shall leave the road, And without looking back, I shall plunge from the security of a stone fence Into the white uncertainty of a forest hushed by snow. I shall go slowly, Tasting deliberately, The awe and the wonder That my feet are the first feet To leave their tale on the snow smoothness. Even, I shall turn now and then, gloating, To see the way I have come, The tentative fumbling of my lonely footprints Through short arcs and long arcs. But always I shall go in deeper Saying over and over, "I am alone and the first -- the first." While the smooth fingers of the silence will mend in me The broken temple of my own importance. Then though I come to the aggressive stumbling of some loud brook I shall be certain of myself; I shall even go back through the silence that healed me Shutting the syllables of my own name. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAESAR'S LOST TRANSPORT SHIPS by ROBERT FROST THE STORY OF THE END OF THE STORY by JAMES GALVIN JAWEH AND ALLAH BATTLE by ALLEN GINSBERG DOMESTIC SONG by DAVID IGNATOW DE LITTLE PICKANINNY'S GONE TO SLEEP by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON NOBODY'S LOOKIN' BUT DE OWL AND DE MOON (A NEGRO SERENADE) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |