O singular perception of the light Which churns on high and burns oblivion, Quite high enough or low to keep in sight Each bit of life before its breath is gone; Impersonal between the wrong and right, Detecting even what they hide who run Their dungeons deep and bury, fastened tight, Some man who dared the freedom of the sun: For then it runs a splinter down a hole, Some mouse, perhaps, once had the teeth to gnaw, And indicates the solitary soul, Who dreams that light might yet prevail as law -- Who ponders on the love that light distills Whose merest drop or two a dungeon fills! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE AFRICAN CHIEF by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT HEROIC LOVE by JAMES GRAHAM (1612-1650) AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY THE MOTHER by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE TRAVEL by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE WATER CROWVOOT by WILLIAM BARNES |