The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (5.1895)

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4 Hymn to the Sea

Man that is galled with his confines, and burdened yet
with his vastness,

Born too great for his ends, never at peace with his
goal;

Man whom Fate, his victor, magnanimous, clement in
triumph,

Holds as a captive king, mewed in a palace divine :

Wide its leagues of pleasance, and ample of purview its
windows 5

Airily falls, in its courts, laughter of fountains at play ;

Nought, when the harpers are harping, untimely reminds
him of durance ;

None, as he sits at the feast, whisper Captivity’s name ;

But, would he parley with Silence, withdraw for awhile
unattended,

Forth to the beckoning world ’scape for an hour and be
free,

Lo, his adventurous fancy coercing at once and provoking,

R ise the unscalable walls, built with a word at the
prime ;

Lo, immobile as statues, with pitiless faces of iron,

Armed at each obstinate gate, stand the impassable guards.

Miser