 | Poems (1895) |  |
71
I. BIRTH AND DEATH.
Methinks the soul within the body heldIs as a little babe within the womb,
Which flutters in its antenatal tomb,
And stirs and heaves the prison where 'tis cell'd,
And struggles in strange darkness, undispell'd
By all its strivings towards the breath and bloom
Of that aurorean being soon to come—
Strivings of feebleness, by nothing quell'd:
And even as birth to the enfranchised child,
Which shows to its sweet senses all the vast
Of beauty, visible and audible,
Is death unto the spirit undefiled;
Setting it free of limit and the past,
And all that in its prison-house befell.
17th August 1838.
| Poems (1895) | |