The Road and the End

Unknown

The Road and the End

I shall foot it

Down the roadway in the dusk,

Where shapes of hunger wander

And the fugitives of pain go by.

I shall foot it

In the silence of the morning,

See the night slur into dawn,

Hear the slow great winds arise

Where tall trees flank the way

And shoulder toward the sky.

The broken boulders by the road

Shall not commemorate my ruin.

Regret shall be the gravel under foot.

I shall watch for

Slim birds swift of wing

That go where wind and ranks of thunder

Drive the wild processionals of rain.

The dust of the traveled road

Shall touch my hands and face.

Carl Sandburg
  
 I've had this poem tucked away in my binders for so many years, and it has only gained strength in that time. It grips me even more today. I love the resolve within the "I shalls". And those lines, "The broken boulders by the road/Shall not commemorate my ruin./Regret shall be the gravel underfoot." This particular theme of facing what needs to be faced, determined to go on in spite of difficulty and pain is one of my favorites ("The Seafarer", Ezra Pound, "The Conflict", C.Day-Lewis, "Like Barley Bending", Sara Teasdale, "The Layers", Stanley Kunitz, "Thalassa", Louis MacNeice, etc.). Sandburg makes every word feel inevitable, meant to be. It takes conviction to carry that off. I paired his poem with the image of the old woman because I hope I will be able to read this when I am old and feel the same resolve, still.