I CANNOT answer, though I hear you call! Ah, yes, I hear you, but I wait, I wait. ... I am a prisoner behind a wall— In honor bound unto my jailer, Fate! Within the wall, I wander as I please; Full well my jailer knows he takes no chance, Full well he knows he has no need of keys— I will not scale the wall of Circumstance! But here behind the wall, I dream—strange dreams That trouble, yet that somehow comfort me— Of open fields, wide skies and running streams, Of flying birds, of all things happy, free! And always in my dream, I hear you call, But when I waken, I behold—the wall! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EGOISME A DEUX' by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE MOURNER A LA MODE by JOHN GODFREY SAXE THE BELFRY PIGEON by NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS ON THE RANGE by BARCROFT HENRY BOAKE THE OLD HOUSE by GRACE DUFFIE BOYLAN ON THE DEATH OF AN OLD TOWNSMAN by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |