how dear the bare place looked

I never liked the end of The Tempest - I always that it was a waste and terribly sad to see Prospero to break his staff and return to the mainland. This poem suggests a remedy:


Prospero Goes Home
by Jack Gilbert

It was not difficult to persuade the captain
to sail a little off course and leave him
at the island. With his boxes in the sand
and the ship getting small, he was home.
Foolishly, he was disappointed that Ariel
was not amazingly there to meet him.
A part had secretly dreamed it would be a woman.
But that lasted briefly and then he was happy.
How dear the bare place looked. How good it felt
getting the supplies up to the house.