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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Great Hunt

Carl Sandburg

I cannot tell you now;
     When the wind’s drive and whirl
     Blow me along no longer,
     And the wind’s a whisper at last—
Maybe I’ll tell you then—
                         some other time.

     When the rose’s flash to the sunset
     Reels to the rack and the twist,
     And the rose is a red bygone,
     When the face I love is going
     And the gate to the end shall clang,
     And it’s no use to beckon or say, “So long”—
Maybe I’ll tell you then—
                         some other time.

I never knew any more beautiful than you:
     I have hunted you under my thoughts,
     I have broken down under the wind
     And into the roses looking for you.
          I shall never find any
                         greater than you.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Chicago Poems | Henry Holt & Company, 1916
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