I WATCH the happier people of the house Come in and out, and talk, and go their ways; I sit and gaze at them; I cannot rouse My heavy mind to share their busy days. I watch them glide, like skaters on a stream, Across the brilliant surface of the world. But I am underneath: they do not dream How deep below the eddying flood is whirl'd. They cannot come to me, nor I to them; But, if a mightier arm could reach and save, Should I forget the tide I had to stem? Should I, like these, ignore the abysmal wave? Yes! in the radiant air how could I know How black it is, how fast it is, below? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD by LOUIS UNTERMEYER DISCONTENTS IN DEVON by ROBERT HERRICK ILLUSIONS by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON EPIGRAMS: BOOK I, 1 by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS AUTUMN by JESSIE ALBERT BARNEY STANZAS TO AN AFFECTIONATE AND PIOUS PARENT, ON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD by BERNARD BARTON |