As on a hidden voyage fast confined
A captive in his dungeon hears forlorn
Free winds and waves, and muffled voices borne
From fleeting shores unknown, soon left behind;
And hearing, beats against his narrow walls
And strives to pierce them, that the moving skies
May lay his path in light before his eyes:
So hears my fettered soul, at intervals,
An outer world breathe near, and tries the bond
And compass of her prison, seeking still
To force some secret port, from whose wide sill
She, haply might look forth on light beyond,
And see, for weal or woe, in Truth's pure ray,
The mystery of Life's Voyage wane away.