I'm a Stranger Here: Meaning, Analysis, and the Poem by Louis L'Amour →

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Originally published July 26, 2018. Updated for 2026.

I'm a Stranger Here

By Louis L'Amour

If I, between two suns, should go away,
No voice would lift to ask another why,
No word would question my retreat, nor sigh,
Nor wonder why I'd chosen not to stay;
For I am a stranger here, of other clay:
A guest within this house, a passerby-
A roving life whose theme has been "Goodbye"
A shadow on the road, a thing astray.

What dim ancestral heritage is mine
That now awakens in my blood regret?
What destiny is this, what strange design,
That I must seek a haunting silhouette
In unremembered lands my dreams divine,
But cannot quite recall or quite forget?

What Does "I'm a Stranger Here" Mean?

Most readers know Louis L'Amour for his Western novels, but he also wrote thoughtful poetry that explored identity, belonging, memory, and purpose. I'm a Stranger Here is one of his finest examples.

The poem expresses the feeling of being present in the world while never feeling entirely at home within it. The speaker describes himself as "a guest" and "a passerby," suggesting that life itself is temporary and that our deepest longings often point beyond what we can fully explain.

A Life of Wandering

The opening stanza presents the speaker as someone accustomed to moving on.

A roving life whose theme has been "Goodbye."

On one level, these words reflect L'Amour's own life. Before becoming a bestselling author, he worked a remarkable variety of jobs and traveled extensively throughout the United States and around the world.

On another level, the poem speaks to a universal experience. Many people feel like travelers through life, never quite settling, always searching for a place, a purpose, or a sense of belonging.

Memory, Heritage, and the Search for Home

The second stanza turns inward.

The speaker wonders whether something inherited from distant ancestors continues to call him toward places he has never known.

Questions replace certainty:

• What heritage lives within us?

• Why do some places feel strangely familiar?

• Why do we sometimes long for something we cannot name?

Rather than answering these questions, L'Amour invites us to live with them.

Why the Poem Still Resonates

One reason this poem continues to speak to readers is that almost everyone experiences moments of feeling out of place.

A career changes.

Children leave home.

Retirement begins.

A loved one dies.

Life moves forward, yet something inside us continues searching for meaning.

L'Amour reminds us that this longing is not necessarily a weakness. It may simply be part of being human.

About Louis L'Amour's Poetry

Although Louis L'Amour became famous for his novels, he considered poetry an important part of his writing life. I'm a Stranger Here appeared in Smoke From This Altar, his first published book.

In her introduction to the collection, his daughter Kathy L'Amour wrote that her father possessed "the three things" necessary to become a poet: imagination, observation, and the ability to express both through language. That love of words is evident throughout this poem.

Final Reflection

I'm a Stranger Here reminds us that life's deepest questions often remain unanswered.

Where do we truly belong?

Why do certain places, memories, or moments seem to call to us?

Perhaps we are all, at times, strangers passing through this world, searching not only for a destination but for a deeper understanding of ourselves.

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch →

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

Aeschylus was quoted by Robert Kennedy at Martin Luther King, Jr's death

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“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.”

The quote appears in Robert F. Kennedy’s impromptu speech delivered in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the evening of April 4, 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (JFK Library and Museum, and The Library of Congress)

1. In the John F. Kennedy Library’s archive, it’s part of his “Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968.” JFK Library and Museum

2. The full line is included in published transcripts such as Voices of Democracy under “Kennedy Speech Text Rally in Indianapolis.” Voices of Democracy

3. Wikipedia also cites it in its article on “Robert F. Kennedy’s speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” as one of his best known lines.

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart,

until, in our own despair,

against our will,

comes wisdom

through the awful grace of God.”

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Thoughts about this Poem

Robert F. Kennedy also quoted these lines from the poem in his impromptu speech announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. That moment—raw, unrehearsed, and spoken from the heart—remains one of the most powerful examples of public grief met with quiet strength.

The same lines were later inscribed on Kennedy’s tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery. He once said, “My favorite poet was Aeschylus.” In turning to poetry during one of the nation’s darkest moments, Kennedy reminded us that words—even ancient ones—can still speak into the present.

About Aeschylus

Few reliable sources exist for the life of Aeschylus. He was born around 525 BCE in Eleusis, a town northwest of Athens. As a young man, he worked in a vineyard until, according to tradition, the god Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and inspired him to write for the stage.

At just 26, Aeschylus had his first play performed (499 BCE). Fifteen years later, he won his first prize at the Dionysia festival, Athens’ most prestigious playwriting competition. Often regarded as the father of tragedy, Aeschylus wrote with a depth and weight that transcends centuries. The lines Kennedy quoted come from one of his surviving works, Agamemnon—a meditation on suffering, wisdom, and the human condition.

Why These Lines Still Matter

In moments of loss, words often fail. But sometimes, they also hold us. The fact that a 2,000-year-old line could resonate with the grief of 1968—and still echo today—speaks to poetry’s enduring role: not to solve pain, but to give it shape.

Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost →

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Analysis of Acquainted with the Night Poem

“Night" is where isolation, sorrow, and despair are found and when they are found they won’t leave. Your trapped, and the darkness is part of the trap.

Robert Frost is suggesting that this is just part of being human and that we all will feel a connection these thoughts. Perhaps we all do?

Invictus, by William Ernest Henley →

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

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor 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.

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Thoughts on the poem Invictus

The words of this poem are inspiring and suggest the strength of the individual but even with that positive conclusion it does raise questions? Are we really the master of our souls? Is survival a adequate measure of success?

Invictus means unconquerable and the poem inspires that feeling about ourselves.

My book, Embrace Life’s Randomness: Breathe in the Amazing, compares this point of view labeling it stoic with a more free will view at life that it is random. Stoic because in-spite of what happens you have strength because you suck it up and get past adversity even accepting that you are giving the adversity to make you stronger compared to the idea that randomness is a way of freeing yourself from predestination and enabling true free will to kick in. More on these ideas in my book.