It needs a spark or two of gold before The body can revive sufficient heat To lift the head and give accustomed feet The impetus to move beyond a chore; Then having dined on plenty to the core And saved the morrow from the old retreat, And having heard its blood return, repeat A summons on the drum and on the door, Its servitude can rise and go the way Of crooked roads outside its habitude, And turn a key upon the cell so gray With webs privation spun to multitude -- And urge its limbs to where horizons span, And bodies gain a soul and find a man! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES ON HEARING THE ORGAN by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SUMTER [APRIL 12, 1861] by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN NOVEMBER, 1806 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ELEGY FOR A DEAD KING by AL-KUTANDI PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 55. ALLAH-AL-MATEEN by EDWIN ARNOLD THE MAID OF LLANWELLYN; A SONG by JOANNA BAILLIE |