Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ASPIRATION, by JOHN NORRIS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ASPIRATION, by                    
First Line: How long, great god, how long must I
Last Line: But fly, and love on all the way.
Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


HOW long, great God, how long must I
Immured in this dark prison lie!
Where at the gates and avenues of sense
My Soul must watch to have intelligence;
Where but faint gleams of thee salute my sight,
Like doubtful moonshine on a cloudy night.
When shall I leave this magic sphere,
And be all mind, all eye, all ear?

How cold this clime! and yet my sense
Perceives even here thy influence.
Even here thy strong magnetic charms I feel,
And pant and tremble like the amorous steel.
To lower good, and beauties less divine,
Sometimes my erroneous needle does decline;
But yet so strong the sympathy,
It turns and points again to thee.

I long to see this excellence
Which at such distance strikes my sense.
My impatient Soul struggles to disengage
Her wings from the confinement of her cage.
Would'st thou great Love this prisoner once set free,
How would she hasten to be link'd with thee!
She'd for no angel's conduct stay,
But fly, and love on all the way.





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