HENCEFORTH I propound a new life for you-that you should bring the peace and grace of Nature into all your daily life—being freed from vain striving. The freed soul, passing disengaged into the upper air, forgetful of self, Rising again in others, ever knowing itself again in others. The villa stands with its picturesque gables and garden, its rhododendrons all in flower, and exotic firs, with clumps of tulips; The ploughman to his horses clicks and calls all day in the midst of the vocal landscape; The rivers wind lazily about the land; the slow air floats on from the West and South, bringing on its bosom long-promised gifts. Out of houses and closed rooms, out of the closed prison of self which you have inhabited so long; Into the high air which circles round the world, the region of human equality, With outspread wings balanced, resting on that which is not self, Floating high up as a condor over the mountains in aerial suspense, Or as an eagle flying screaming over the cities of the earth, with joy delirious— So passing enfranchised shall you regain after long captivity Your own your native abode. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GRANDMITHER, THINK NOT I FORGET by WILLA SIBERT CATHER THE LABORS OF HERCULES by MARIANNE MOORE BEAUTY ROHTRAUT by EDUARD FRIEDRICH MORIKE MOON OF LOVELINESS by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II AUTUMNAL SONNET by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 16 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE GODDESS IN THE WOOD by RUPERT BROOKE |