There's a cry from out the loneliness — oh, listen, Honey, listen!
Do you hear it, do you fear it, you're a-holding of me so?
You're a-sobbing in your sleep, dear, and your lashes, how they glisten —
Do you hear the Little Voices all a-begging me to go?
All a-begging me to leave you. Day and night they're pleading, praying,
On the North-wind, on the West-wind, from the peak and from the plain;
Night and day they never leave me — do you know what they are saying?
"He was ours before you got him, and we want him once again."
Yes, they're wanting me, they're haunting me, the awful lonely places;
They're whining and they're whimpering as if each had a soul;
They're calling from the wilderness, the vast and God-like spaces,
The stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole.
They miss my little camp-fires, ever brightly, bravely gleaming
In the womb of desolation, where was never man before;
As comradeless I sought them, lion-hearted, loving, dreaming,
And they hailed me as a comrade, and they loved me evermore.
And now they're all a-crying, and it's no use me denying;
The spell of them is on me and I'm helpless as a child;
My heart is aching, aching, but I hear them, sleeping, waking;
It's the Lure of Little Voices, it's the mandate of the Wild.
I'm afraid to tell you, Honey, I can take no bitter leaving;
But softly in the sleep-time from your love I'll steal away.
Oh, it's cruel, dearie, cruel, and it's God knows how I'm grieving;
But His loneliness is calling, and He knows I must obey.
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To me this sounds like a committed outdoor man, used to living the solitary life of a frontiersman, justifying a decision to pack up and leave his wife and 'civilised' living and return to the freedom of the wilds.
I wonder if Service, no stranger to frontier life, write this in his later years after he married and settled down in Europe. -
From guest suseann
Such compassion for one left behind,I'm assuming in death. This author's explaining why he must leave in sad terms yet of the type a child or loved one can relate to.It reeks of fear in what might await he's passing over and yet makes attempts to comfort the one left behind as well.Very sad composition. -
this is typical of men of the wild... with restless minds... who sometimes cannot be tamed ... even by love ... or cannot be at home...
so typical the words of excuse... in sweetness -
The story in this piece draws the reader to see an independent, adventuresome man who thought, for a while, that he could be domesticated. However, in the shadows of his mind, Jack London's call of the wild strikes him, and his need to return to his home overwhelms the desire to stay with his love. This piece is impeccably clear and well written, so much so that I, were it set to music, would sing it. There is so much you can do with a wonderful piece such as this, and so little a population to do it with because appreciation for poetry seems lacking in these days of every convenience. I often wish to be lost in a scientific phenomenon in order to visit the past and understand a simpler, more honest time, a time when the woodsmen were the choices of the male population and the most difficult to keep as illustrated by this wonderous poem.
I wanna write like this!
Enjoy, all!
Edited on May 31, 8:44 p.m. because '.... me and my spelling'. -
I'm in love. This poem just dangled me over paradise and let me bake in the fumes of its perfected happiness. I love it all, so much so that "love" seems so laskluster and dull as to how I must really feel in order to not taint it with my unworthyness. Ok I'm shutting up now... but only so I can read it again!
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Now, this is the last piece I am reading of Service's today and I am leaving on a quite an excellent piece. This is applaudable, an excellent piece. Flawless rhythm, the story at the end hits the reader (or should) and it just is quite well done all around I feel.
Tho, and yes, there is a tho, I feel the first line of the last verse is not up to par with the rest of the piece. But, even tho I have a quirk with that, I feel none-the-less this is an excellent piece and if I was able to, I would applaud it.
An excellent piece written by Service.
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