Iii

Within these cages day by day we pace The bitter shortness of the meted span; And this and that way variously we plan Our poor excursions over the poor place, Cribbed to extinction. Yet remains one grace. For neither bars nor tented wire can ban Full many a roving glance that dares to scan The roomy hill, and wanders into space. Yea, and remains for ever unrepealed And unimpaired the free impetuous quest Of the mind’s soaring eye, at length unsealed To the full measure of a life possessed Awhile, but never counted, now revealed Inestimable, wonderful, unguessed.

RASTATT, 7th May