Tramping With a Poet in the RockiesLindsay, Vachel
General
Tramping With a Poet in the Rockies
Lindsay, Vachel
Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931; Rocky Mountains -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Lindsay is also constantly enwrapped by the romance of Going West--the
historic and poetic Western movement which has pulsated humanity since
the hordes and their caravans stampeded across Asia in the days which
are almost before history. What was it, what is it that hypnotises
us--is it not the sun which, rising in the morning, calls all his
children after him all day and bids them follow when at last he plunges
into night and nothingness?
* * * * *
“HAVE courage,” says the sun in the evening. “Have faith,” say the
stars all the night long. “You see, I rise again; you will rise,” says
the sun in the morning. “This way, this way,” he says till noon, and
“Follow, follow,” all the afternoon, and then once more, “Behold! I
go. Have courage!” he says in the evening again. And that sets young
hearts a-beating, that kindles the poet’s flame and enlarges the spirit
and makes the way of the world.
That makes us all nomads, all gypsies, all pilgrims. That draws the
steps of the willing, and even the unwilling find themselves borne
along by a human tide and a sliding sand of time--away to the west and
the night and the other country. No one can stay, even if he will. In
time all must go, all must follow the sun and cross the Divide and go
down the slopes of the unimaginable other side and be with the stars
in the long, hungry night, the myriads of stars that never do anything
else but look down on human souls and ask of us and stare at us and
dream of us. The night of stars for all of us, and then with our Father
and guide, far o’er these mountains, wan and tired, but gleaming
and then resplendent, we lift our eyes to the other country, the
dreamed-of, hoped-for country--and it is morning and we are still with
the light that we followed yesterday.
* * * * *
“THE old prairie-schooners,” says Lindsay, “blundered forward on the
western way, day after day, season after season, sometimes for years,
for the pioneers often worked their way to the Virgin Land which they
had taken for goal. Often, indeed, they died on the way, they broke
down on the way. Each yearned to the West even as they failed and threw
their spirits westward, like Douglases carrying the heart of Bruce to
the Promised Land. The primitive instinct for moving was awakened by
the road and many a pioneer found happiness in the going as much as in
the attainment.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account