X. A light broke in upon my brain, It was the carol of a bird; It ceased, and then it came again, The sweetest song ear ever heard, But through the crevice where it came 260 And tamer than upon the tree; A lovely bird, with azure wings, And song that said a thousand things, And seem'd to say them all for me! I never saw its like before, I ne'er shall see its likeness more: It seem'd like me to want a mate, And it was come to love me when And cheering from my dungeon's brink, Or broke its cage to perch on mine, But knowing well captivity, Sweet bird! I could not wish for thine! Or if it were, in winged guise, 270 280 A visitant from Paradise; For-Heaven forgive that thought! the while I sometimes deemed that it might be And then 'twas mortal-well I knew, A single cloud on a sunny day, That hath no business to appear When skies are blue, and earth is gay. 290 XI. A kind of change came in my fate, I know not what had made them so, And it was liberty to stride Along my cell from side to side, And up and down, and then athwart, And round the pillars one by one, My brothers' graves without a sod; 300 310 My breath came gaspingly and thick, XII. I made a footing in the wall, It was not therefrom to escape, For I had buried one and all, Who loved me in a human shape; And the whole earth would henceforth be A wider prison unto me: No child-no sire-no kin had I, No partner in my misery; I thought of this, and I was glad, For thought of them had made me mad; But I was curious to ascend To my barr'd windows, and to bend Once more, upon the mountains high, The quiet of a loving eye. 320 330 |