Poems (Jackson)/Solitude
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
SOLITUDE.
"
SOLITUDE," I said, "sweet Solitude!
I follow fast; I kneel to find thy trace;
I listen low in every secret place;
I lay rough hand on eager human lips;
I set aside all near companionships;
I know thou hast a subtler, rarer good.
O Priestess, how shalt thou be found and wooed?"
I tracked her where she passed in trackless fields;
I trod her path where footprint had not staid
In sunless woods; I stopped to hark where laid
Her very shadow its great bound of light
And gloom in lifeless arctic day and night;
And where, to tropic sun, mid-ocean yields.
Its silent, windless waves, like mirror-shields;
But found her not. Great tribes roamed free
In every trackless field and wood. More plain
Than speech I heard their voice: in rain, the rain
Of endless chatter, and in sun, the sun
Of merry laughing noise, were never done.
All silence dinned with sound; and, jostling me,
In every place, went crowds I could not see.
SOLITUDE," I said, "sweet Solitude!I follow fast; I kneel to find thy trace;
I listen low in every secret place;
I lay rough hand on eager human lips;
I set aside all near companionships;
I know thou hast a subtler, rarer good.
O Priestess, how shalt thou be found and wooed?"
I tracked her where she passed in trackless fields;
I trod her path where footprint had not staid
In sunless woods; I stopped to hark where laid
Her very shadow its great bound of light
And gloom in lifeless arctic day and night;
And where, to tropic sun, mid-ocean yields.
Its silent, windless waves, like mirror-shields;
But found her not. Great tribes roamed free
In every trackless field and wood. More plain
Than speech I heard their voice: in rain, the rain
Of endless chatter, and in sun, the sun
Of merry laughing noise, were never done.
All silence dinned with sound; and, jostling me,
In every place, went crowds I could not see.
In anger, then, at last I cried, "Betray
Whomever thou canst cheat, O Solitude,
With promise of thy subtler, rarer good!
I seek my joy henceforth in haunts of men,
Forgetting thee, where thou hast never been!"
When, lo! that instant sounded close and sweet,
Above the rushing of the city street,
The voice of Solitude herself, to say,
"Ha, loving comrade, met at last! Which way?"
Whomever thou canst cheat, O Solitude,
With promise of thy subtler, rarer good!
I seek my joy henceforth in haunts of men,
Forgetting thee, where thou hast never been!"
When, lo! that instant sounded close and sweet,
Above the rushing of the city street,
The voice of Solitude herself, to say,
"Ha, loving comrade, met at last! Which way?"