I Have Longed to Move Away
I Have Longed to Move Away - meaning Summary
Escape from Patterned Falsehoods
The speaker expresses a persistent desire to leave a world of worn-out lies, ritual salutations, and haunted formalities. They want to escape escalating fear and mechanical social gestures that feel ghostly and meaningless. Yet movement brings anxiety: a suppressed vitality might "explode," causing harm or blindness. The speaker refuses a death that is merely conventional or hypocritical, signaling a craving for authentic life rather than ritualized endings.
Read Complete AnalysesI have longed to move away From the hissing of the spent lie And the old terrors' continual cry Growing more terrible as the day Goes over the hill into the deep sea; I have longed to move away From the repetition of salutes, For there are ghosts in the air And ghostly echoes on paper, And the thunder of calls and notes. I have longed to move away but am afraid; Some life, yet unspent, might explode Out of the old lie burning on the ground, And, crackling into the air, leave me half-blind. Neither by night's ancient fear, The parting of hat from hair, Pursed lips at the receiver, Shall I fall to death's feather. By these I would not care to die, Half convention and half lie.
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