THE Gods, being merry, and having for a whim Created Man to make a jest of him, And taken counsel of their hearts how best To crown with a pure perfectness the jest, Set him fast-anchored shiplike mid the foam Of the Infinite Seas he else had joyed to roam. There doth he bear, while tempest round him flits, The laughter of the great, high, heavenly Wits; And there, though he persuades himself that he Is well contented with captivity, He dreams of the isles he never hath espied, And the far oceans to his sails denied. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES BY CLAUDIA by EMILY JANE BRONTE WE WEAR THE MASK by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR COMFORT [TO A YOUTH THAT HAD LOST HIS LOVE] by ROBERT HERRICK MEMORIAL TO D.C.: 5. ELEGY by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY PREFATORY POEM TO MY BROTHER'S SONNETS by ALFRED TENNYSON FABLE; ROME, 1875 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |