Thoughts of Home
I saw part of this poem quoted in Eudora Welty’s book One Writer’s Beginnings, which I finally read after my friend Laura recommended it years ago, and my friend Becky recently mentioned it again. It is a lovely autobiography (I have never read any of her other books) about her simple Mississippi upbringing and how her family life enabled her to see the world in stories and fed her imagination. The snippet of the poem intrigued me, so I looked it up, and the only place where I found the entire poem was here, and I’m not sure if it’s formatted properly. It doesn’t rhyme, but its lyrical beauty makes sense, and I think it will speak to those who are weary of the whirling cultural chaos that intrudes upon peaceful reflection. (Poetry lesson: notice the alliteration in the first line which gives the metaphor and is repeated throughout the poem.)
HOME
by William Alexander PercyI have a need of silence and of stars;
Too much is said too loudly; I am dazed.
The silken sound of whirled infinity
Is lost in voices shouting to be heard.
I once knew men as earnest and less shrill.
An undermeaning that I caught I miss
Among these ears that hear all sounds save silence,
These eyes that see so much but not the sky,
These minds that gain all knowledge but no calm.
If suddenly the desperate music ceased,
Could they return to life? or would they stand
In dancers’ attitudes, puzzled, polite,
And striking vaguely hand on tired hand
For an encore, to fill the ghastly pause?
I do not know. Some rhythm there may be
I cannot hear. But I oh, I must go
Back where the breakers of deep sunlight roll
Across flat fields that love and touch the sky;
Back to the more of earth, the less of man,
Where there is still a plain simplicity,
And friendship, poor in everything but love,
And faith, unwise, unquestioned, but a star,
Soon now the peace of summer will be there
With cloudy fire of myrtles in full bloom;
And, when the marvelous wide evenings come,
Across the molten river one can see
The misty willow-green of Arcady.
And then the summer stars … I will go home.
