How shall I make of joy discovery? For is it not an orbit that enspheres The heart? Like misty heaven, as one nears, The circuit spreads; and like the flowing sea Whose waves evolve a scroll of mystery, Its vague development eludes the seers. It is a garment like the shrouding years, -- A dusky shield, a cloudy canopy, Illumined by the soul that stands beneath. It must forever amplify, deploy, Give spirit space, -- that's all I know of joy. It is a hovering defence, a sheath, In which the spirit comes to flowering, A folding and a cool enfolded wing. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 6 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING IN THE OLD THEATRE, FIESOLE by THOMAS HARDY TO MY ANTENOR, MARCH 16, 1661/2 by KATHERINE PHILIPS THE MAID OF NEIDPATH by WALTER SCOTT IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 11 by ALFRED TENNYSON IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 130 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE LEPER (2) by NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS THE PATRIOTIC MERCHANT PRINCE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ON A VOLUME OF ANONYNOUS POEMS ENTITLED A MASQUE OF POETS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |