The Road and the End
The Road and the End - meaning Summary
Solitary March Toward Acceptance
The speaker describes walking a roadside path at dusk and into morning, witnessing human suffering, natural forces, and ordinary landscape. He refuses grand memorials for his downfall, instead accepting regret as the ordinary gravel beneath his feet. Attention to birds, wind and dust emphasizes a tactile, humble encounter with the world. The poem frames death or ending as a quiet, physical journey shared with common life rather than a heroic or solitary drama.
Read Complete AnalysesI shall foot it Down the roadway in the dusk, Where shapes of hunger wander And the fugitives of pain go by. I shall foot it In the silence of the morning, See the night slur into dawn, Hear the slow great winds arise Where tall trees flank the way And shoulder toward the sky. The broken boulders by the road Shall not commemorate my ruin. Regret shall be the gravel under foot. I shall watch for Slim birds swift of wing That go where wind and ranks of thunder Drive the wild processionals of rain. The dust of the traveled road Shall touch my hands and face.
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