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.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare by Walter de la Mare
• Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare by Walter de la Mare
• Napoleon by Walter de la Mare by Walter de la Mare
• Arabia by Walter de la Mare by Walter de la Mare
• An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare by Walter de la Mare
• To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Silent Lover ii by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Silent Lover i by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Lie by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Conclusion by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• The Artist by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• Song of Myself by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• Sestina Otiosa by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• Now What Is Love by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• On Being Challenged to Write an Epigram in the Manner of Herrick by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• Nature that Washed Her Hands in Milk by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh
• My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh by Walter Raleigh

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

Parallel Translations of Poetry

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works