REBEL AND ROVER

Lew Sarett

Solo 1: My neighbors dubbed me a vagabond,

All: A rebel, and idling clod,

Solo 1: Because I refused to pound my feet

On the cobblestones of a city street,

To gild my belly with wine and meat,

All: To bow to their golden god.

Solo 1: They put me down as a ne’er—do well,

All: A shirker of sober soil,

Solo 1: Because I bolted their wolves’ pack,

Loped a lone trail, and never turned back,

Scoffed at the game they sought to track,

All: And wheeled from their paltry spoil.

Solo 1: They wagged their heads with concern for me;

Sprawled by a woodland pool,

I was content at dawn to lie

And watch the triumphant eagle fly

All: Scrawling his freedom over the sky—

Solo 1: For this they called me a fool!

God rest you content, O gentlemen

I break from you glittering bars,

To throb with the ultimate eagle’s flight,

To know the trivial world from his height.

The wild song of the wind at night

All: And the neighborliness of stars.

Solo 1: Hail and farewell, you bridled all!

When the gold of your god turns gilt,

I shall have minted the gold of the sun,

Into my arteries I shall have run

The wines of contentment, one by one,

All: And never a drop shall have spilt

Solo 1: And never a grace I’ll ask of the world,

All: Nor pity, nor earthly token;

Solo 1: Only a brook and a bannock-bread,

The loyal lips of the woman I wed,

And cool wet moss to pillow my head

When my wild wings are broken.