 | Fantasy and Passion |  |
129
FIRE.
For all that lives I am a spirit of hate;
All beauty and strength I would annul or ban;
And yet, through some imperious edict, fate
Puts my vast power within the rule of man.
All beauty and strength I would annul or ban;
And yet, through some imperious edict, fate
Puts my vast power within the rule of man.
For me, to whom sad ruin and death are sweet,
This lowly slavery galls with pangs austere;
I loathe the illumined hearth where loved ones meet,
The shivering outcast whose chilled frame I cheer.
This lowly slavery galls with pangs austere;
I loathe the illumined hearth where loved ones meet,
The shivering outcast whose chilled frame I cheer.
In the wide hurry and clash of this great town,
I long perpetually, with zeal intense,
To break the tyrannous bonds that bind me down
And revel awhile in red magnificence!
I long perpetually, with zeal intense,
To break the tyrannous bonds that bind me down
And revel awhile in red magnificence!
Thus with invisible wrath I chafe and strain
Amid my stern captivity's dreary days,
Till after infinite effort I attain
A riotous liberty, and madly blaze.
Amid my stern captivity's dreary days,
Till after infinite effort I attain
A riotous liberty, and madly blaze.
Then in high watch-towers bells are tolled with might,
And summoning peals ring loud above my roar,
And bold men with my turbulent fury fight,
Till, utterly quelled, I am a slave once more!
And summoning peals ring loud above my roar,
And bold men with my turbulent fury fight,
Till, utterly quelled, I am a slave once more!
But often amid defeat a thought that charms,
While yet the water drowns my crackle and hiss,
Is that I have wrapped some life in these wild arms,
Or laid on some dead face my blackening kiss!
While yet the water drowns my crackle and hiss,
Is that I have wrapped some life in these wild arms,
Or laid on some dead face my blackening kiss!
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