Longing for home in Joan Fallert's "Wanderer"

Wanderer by Joan Fallert

Annotate

Calling

each to each, each

Reinforces the idea that it is a large social group.

lifts and the great V drives a wedge in the late autumn sky

Snow Geese

flying south, south to feed and nest, ride the thermals mile after guileless mile without (free from intent to deceive/impress others)

resting

Coupled

for life they fly,

Do geese mate for life? Do they fly in pairs?

fly sometimes past midnight into day, bills opening and closing slightly,

Their mouths opening and closing a little.

ceaselessly, necks straight, eyes clean, opened wide fly toward the place they know they must

Heading for a specific destination. Compelled to go to travel there.

and I

The writer does not have a place calling to her with no place to and watching the geese makes her more aware be drawn to of my own of this; causes her to listen for a place that watch, listen for a heartland to calls her.

call me, call me back in the chill

Envies the geese having something that makes air to somewhere which can their pulses pound.

make my pulse pound, powerful as wing beat heading for the sweet ground on which the wild goose knows

Makes it clear that she does not envy the geese it will be able to set down for their having a compulsion about a place to travel at last.

but because they have a place to rest.

The title Wanderer makes one think that the poem will describe someone aimlessly wandering. However, much of the poem does not describe wandering at all. The geese are not wanderers; they have a very specific destination and a reason for their travel. The last stanza of the poem reveals that it is the narrator who wanders and envies the geese for having a destination in their travel.

Paraphrase

The narrator watches the birds fly above her head. She notes their v-formation and the fact that they are coupled. She discusses their lack of any bad intent, but also that they have a strong drive to accomplish their goal. She talks about having no place that calls to her, and that she envies the geese having a place that compels them. At the end, she reveals that is not the journey that she envies, but that the geese have a place to set down, at last.

Connotation

The clear connotation in the poem is the longing for home and belonging. Throughout the poem, the narrator discusses the geese's journey, and her envy for that journey. She wishes for something that could make her pulse pound in the same way that the geese are compelled to complete their journey. However, the meaning goes beyond the journey. The narrator conveys an intense feeling of loneliness. The narrator is solitary and makes it clear that she has no place to call her home. When one considers the fact that she points out that the geese are coupled in pairs, her loneliness becomes even more apparent.

Theme

The journey of the Snow Geese to the heartland is a statement about belonging in life, both in a social group and in a location, and the narrator uses that statement to reflect upon the loneliness and lack of belonging in her own life.

Feelings

This poem is not a bad one, but it does not specifically speak to me. I do not recall having the same type of feelings that plague the narrator. I have always felt as if I had a place that called to me, a heartland, as it were. On the other hand, I do not feel compelled to travel there in the same way that the geese feel compelled to travel south for the winter. Therefore, I do not find myself really identifying with the geese or with the narrator.