Our far-stretching caravan of longing Never finds an oasis of nymphs and shadows! Love singes us, birds of anguish Bite forever, tearing our hearts out. Ah, we know of cool winds and waters: Everywhere might Elysium be! But we wander, we wander ever in longing! Somewhere a man leaps from a window To snatch a star, and perishes for it, Someone searches in the panopticon For his waxen dream and loves it— But each parching heart is a Land of Fire. Ah, were the floods of Nile and Niagara To overwhelm us, we would cry with more terrible thirst! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIVE KERNELS OF CORN [APRIL, 1622] by HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH MERCILES BEAUTE; A TRIPLE ROUNDEL: 3. ESCAPE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER RAIN-SONGS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR STRANGE HURT [SHE KNOWS] by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES THE WOLF AND THE DOG by JEAN DE LA FONTAINE |