When from the narrow cage Where it has housed, The soul creeps faint and light, I think it will not be too soon aroused To measure its new height, Nor leave its prison in a shining rage. For as the furrowed kernel lying cramped In the nut's hard shell, Bears the deep imprint of the outer case, So shall the soul be stamped With the harsh flesh, where in a scanty space, By heaviness possessed, It learned to dwell. Scored by the mortal grain, The soul shall, even as the body rest, Its duplicate, awake, remembering pain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AH, HAD I SEEN THEE SOONER! by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE ADIEU, TO A FRIEND LEAVING SUFFOLK by BERNARD BARTON WATER SPORT by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE ORDER OF NATURE by ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS A RAIN-DREAM by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT LINES ON HEARING THAT LADY BYRON WAS ILL by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |