He who has gazed against the sun sees everywhere he looks thereafter, palpitating on the air before his eyes, a smudge that will not go away. So in my days of still-youth, my audacity, I dared look on the splendor momentarily. The dark blot on my greedy eyes has come to stay. Since when, worn like a badge of mourning in the sight of all around me where my eye may chance to light, I see the dark smudge settle upon everyone. Forever thus between my happiness and me? Alas for us, the eagle only, only he can look, and not be hurt, on splendor and the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES ON CARMEN SYLVA by EMMA LAZARUS MINNIE AND WINNIE by ALFRED TENNYSON DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 3. AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER EPITAPH FOR A CONDEMNED BOOK by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE SONNET: MAN VERSUS ASCETIC. 1 by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE BROKEN PITCHER by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. A DREAM OF HUMAN LIFE by EDWARD CARPENTER |