ABOVE the plains, high over lake and pond, Mountains and woods, and clouds and ocean's face, Beyond the sun, beyond the ethereal space, All confines of the starry spheres beyond, My soul, with active wing you take your flight, As some strong swimmer with the waves can play; Through boundless realms you cleave your happy way With manly and unspeakable delight. Fly far--far off from earth's miasmic ills; Go, purify yourself in upper air, And drink, as of a heavenly wine and rare, The fire which all the limpid spaces fills. From all the annoys, and all the griefs and pains, Whose weight to man's o'erclouded being clings, Happy is he who can with vigorous wings Escape to those calm, light-diffusing plains; He whose high thoughts, like larks, are strong to reach The morning sky, toward which they freely wend And soar o'er life, and toil-less comprehend Of flowers and all things dumb the silent speech. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MUSIC AND MEMORY by JOHN ALBEE MARY DONNELLY by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SLUG IN WOODS by EARL (EARLE) BIRNEY RESOLUTION OF A POETICAL QUESTION CONCERNING FOUR RURAL SISTERS: 2 by CHARLES COTTON THE RIGHT TO DIE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR EPITAPH ON THE MONUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM DYER by KATHERINE DYER TO AN INSECT by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |