Sometimes this verse seems too melancholy and detached — sometimes not enough. But I always love it.
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.The last scud of day holds back for me;
It flings my likeness after the rest, and true as any, on the shadow’d wilds;
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun;
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love;
If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean;
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged;
Missing me one place, search another;
I stop somewhere, waiting for you.