HE who but yesterday would roam Careless as clouds and currents range, In homeless wandering most at home, Inhabiter of change; Who wooed the west to win the east, And named the stars of north and south, And felt the zest of Freedom's feast Familiar in his mouth; Who found a faith in stranger speech, And fellowship in foreign hands, And had within his eager reach The relish of all lands -- How circumscribed a plot of earth Keeps now his restless footsteps still, Whose wish was wide as ocean's girth, Whose will the water's will! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WORLD-SOUL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON ON HIS BEING [OR, HAVING] ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE by JOHN MILTON SNOWBOUND by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER MADISON CAWEIN by MARGARET STEELE ANDERSON EAST AND WEST by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE IMPROVISATORE: THE INDUCTION TO THE THIRD FYTTE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |