A Teamster's Farewell
Sobs En Route to a Penitentiary
A Teamster's Farewell - meaning Summary
Longing for Urban Noise
A Teamster's Farewell presents a working horseman saying goodbye to the sights, sounds, and physical rhythms of street life as he heads to a penitentiary. The speaker mixes resignation and longing, cataloguing sensory details—the brass buckles, iron hoof, traffic whistle—to show how deeply his identity and appetite are tied to the city’s noisy, muscular labor. The poem contrasts impending silence with remembered, almost mourned, urban clamor.
Read Complete AnalysesGood-by now to the streets and the clash of wheels and locking hubs, The sun coming on the brass buckles and harness knobs. The muscles of the horses sliding under their heavy haunches, Good-by now to the traffic policeman and his whistle, The smash of the iron hoof on the stones, All the crazy wonderful slamming roar of the street-- O God, there's noises I'm going to be hungry for.
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