Carl Sandburg

The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt - form Summary

Free Verse Intimacy

Written in free verse, the poem uses loose, conversational lines and a recurring refrain to create an intimate, reflective voice. The open form allows shifts between present longing, imagined future silence, and retrospective praise without formal constraint. Line breaks and repetition sustain a mood of pursuit and yearning, letting emotion dictate rhythm rather than meter and reinforcing the speaker’s unresolved search and deferred confession.

Read Complete Analyses

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.

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