I WATCH the happier people of the house Come in and out, and talk, and go their ways; I sit and gaze at them; I cannot rouse My heavy mind to share their busy days. I watch them glide, like skaters on a stream, Across the brilliant surface of the world. But I am underneath: they do not dream How deep below the eddying flood is whirl'd. They cannot come to me, nor I to them; But, if a mightier arm could reach and save, Should I forget the tide I had to stem? Should I, like these, ignore the abysmal wave? Yes! in the radiant air how could I know How black it is, how fast it is, below? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 8 by JAMES JOYCE CRITIC AND POET by EMMA LAZARUS ON DEATH, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION by WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA THE GOODLY SONG by PAUL VERLAINE THE LITTLE GIRL FOUND, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE |