The Wanderer

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so

Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves,

Back of old-storied spires and architraves

To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut,

And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day

Flooded with gold some domed metropolis,

Between new towers to waken and new bliss

Spread on his pillow in a wondrous way:

These were his joys. Oft under bulging crates,

Coming to market with his morning load,

The peasant found him early on his road

To greet the sunrise at the city-gates,—

There where the meadows waken in its rays,

Golden with mist, and the great roads commence,

And backward, where the chimney-tops are dense,

Cathedral-arches glimmer through the haze.

White dunes that breaking show a strip of sea,

A plowman and his team against the blue

Swiss pastures musical with cowbells, too,

And poplar-lined canals in Picardie,

And coast-towns where the vultures back and forth

Sail in the clear depths of the tropic sky,

And swallows in the sunset where they fly

Over gray Gothic cities in the north,

And the wine-cellar and the chorus there,

The dance-hall and a face among the crowd,—

Were all delights that made him sing aloud

For joy to sojourn in a world so fair.

Back of his footsteps as he journeyed fell

Range after range; ahead blue hills emerged.

Before him tireless to applaud it surged

The sweet interminable spectacle.

And like the west behind a sundown sea

Shone the past joys his memory retraced,

And bright as the blue east he always faced

Beckoned the loves and joys that were to be.

From every branch a blossom for his brow

He gathered, singing down Life’s flower-lined road,

And youth impelled his spirit as he strode

Like winged Victory on the galley’s prow.

That Loveliness whose being sun and star,

Green Earth and dawn and amber evening robe,

That lamp whereof the opalescent globe

The season’s emulative splendors are,

That veiled divinity whose beams transpire

From every pore of universal space,

As the fair soul illumes the lovely face—

That was his guest, his passion, his desire.

His heart the love of Beauty held as hides

One gem most pure a casket of pure gold.

It was too rich a lesser thing to bold;

It was not large enough for aught besides.

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Poems in English 

• Waking In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Told by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• They Feed They Lion by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Then by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The New World by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Helmet by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Distant Winter by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Gangrene by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Noon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making Light Of It by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making It Work by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Magpiety by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Mad Day In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School–Detroit, 1942 by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Moon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Light by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Last Words by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine

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