.

First Footsteps on a One-way
Journey to America

Leave home behind, another lies ahead,
Beyond these hills, these clover-covered dales;
Empty the mind aboard those sea-bound sails,
To fill with saline tears the ocean’s bed;
But forward steps make thought turn back my head,
The thought of all that was, which now assails
My broken-hearted self, who sorely wails
To be the widower of joys long wed.
Why journey on? That endless night is nigh
From whence I will no longer see my sun;
My sun, whose setting behind me has begun:
Turn back to her, now fading from the eye,
And as you watch your brightest days there dying,
Express a lifetime’s thought in one last sighing.

.

.

Daniel Joseph Howard studied law in his native Ireland before taking his MA in philosophy at King’s College London. After working in the European Commission, he is now pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Boston College.

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12 Responses

  1. Phil S. Rogers

    Mr Howard;
    There is so much to be taken from this poem, in traveling through life and approaching old age. The line I find most striking, and one I will not forget
    is, “To be the widower of joys long wed.” It has so much meaning, and brings back memories of things and people that can no longer be part of my life.

    Reply
    • Daniel Howard

      Dear Phil,
      Thanks for your comment. Nice to know that that particular line was able to inspire a (hopefully fond) trip down memory lane.

      Reply
  2. Sally Cook

    Dear Daniel –
    The elegance of your expression astounds me. Thanks for sharing the way your mind works.

    Reply
  4. Margaret Coats

    This is very, very beautifully expressed, and structured as a sonnet with a wave in each quatrain. I feel a trough in lines 4, 8, and 11, a crest in lines 5, 9, and 12. That leaves the couplet for a long outflow with feminine rhymes. Thus the turn does happen at the couplet, as in sonnet theory it should when there is a couplet conclusion. This analysis may be technical, but I can hardly say anything about the fine emotional word choice that would appreciate the effect sufficiently.

    Reply
    • Daniel Howard

      Thank you for your technical analysis, Margaret. The trough and crest analogy certainly captures the flow of a sonnet.

      Reply
  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    Thank you for contributing this, Daniel. It is exquisite. “But forward steps make thought turn back my head” is one (of several) of my favorite lines.

    Reply
    • Daniel Howard

      Thanks Cynthia, nice to get an insight into one of your favourite lines.

      Reply
  6. Paul A. Freeman

    A melancholic tone runs throughout this piece, conveying the anxiety of being uprooted. I like the universality of the piece, in that the person on the one-way journey to America could be anything from an aristocratic speculator, to a downtrodden European peasant, to an enslaved African.

    Thanks for the read, Daniel.

    Reply
    • Daniel Howard

      Thanks for your comment Paul. Indeed the emotions provoked by being uprooted undoubtedly transcend class boundaries. Perhaps what makes the experience universal is the fact that being uprooted forces one to confront the passing of the present into the past.

      Reply

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