University of Virginia Library

MORNING THOUGHTS.

Mount—mount, my thoughts!—and soar into the sky,
With yon ascending lark, whose minstrelsy
So charms the Emparadised and gladdened ear,
A happy music—free, and wild, and clear.
Mount—mount, my thoughts—with yon ascending lark,
Round whom the Heavens seem opening—hark, O! hark,
How gladly and victoriously he sings,
While Joy and Liberty make strong his wings.
Oh! how unlike yon captive in his cage,
To whom each hour must seem a weary age;
Poor Captive! for no crime, no fault confined,
And severed from thy home and from thy kind,
Thou Winged Captive—thus more captive still
Because thou feel'st the power—thou ownest the will:
And Nature gave intensely unto thee
The mighty love of glorious Liberty!
Those wings are worse than chains, since thou'rt debarr'd
From their free use—Oh! Fortune harsh and hard!
All Nature gave, is torn from thee away,
Child of the Air, the Cloudland, and the Day!
No fair-crisp'd streams, dyed deep by Summer Evens,
With all the lustre of their crimsoned Heavens—
No playful breezes—wandering lightly by
With many a murmuring tone and odorous sigh,
No floating clouds that in their chainless play
Sail fleetly past and vanish swift away,
Their various treasures offer unto thee
As once, when thou like them wert glad and free.
Oh! that I could unbind thee and release,
And bid this harsh Captivity to cease,
Then would I say to thee—“Be free! depart!
Amongst these clouds and breezes chainless dart,
And mock their merry sport and give them chase
Without a goal but Heaven—a bound but Space!
Pour the clear river of thy lovely strain
Through the green Woods' free Music-Seas again!
Go forth—away—depart in joy! be free!
Thou child of Light and boundless Liberty—
Mount as a Soul released from dust and Earth
And bound into the freedom of thy Birth!”