Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, dont help them to bury the light
Don't give in without a fight.

Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I'm coming home.

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

Hey you, out there on the road
always doing what you're told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever god may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced not cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

Molte volte ho osservato
Il marmo che hanno scolpito per me
Un vascello con la vela ammainata
Alla fonda in un porto.
In verità ciò non rappresenta la mia destinazione
Ma la mia vita.
Perché mi fu offerto l'amore e io fuggii
I suoi disinganni;
Il dolore bussò alla mia porta, ma ebbi paura;
Mi chiamò l'ambizione, ma le opportunità mi hanno
Terrorizzato.
Eppure desidero di dare
Un significato alla mia vita.
E ora io so che bisogna alzare le vele
E prendere i venti del destino
Dovunque conducano il vascello.
Dare il significato alla propria vita
Può finire in follia,
Ma la vita senza significato è la tortura
senza requie e vago desiderio.
E' un vascello che anela al mare
E ne ha paura.

Edgar Lee Masters
Antologia di Spoon River