Poems (Linn)/In Prison
IN PRISON.
I AM in prison, lo! on either hand The gray walls rise that shut me from the day;Thick walls whose strength defy my woman power, Within whose niches grow the mosses gray:Time-worn these walls, the home of many a heartWho longed like mine to know the better part.
I am in prison, though above, the sky Gleams clear, and daisied fields are mine. To strayBy winding rivers where the cowslips grow, No voice forbids, no bar impedes the way:And overhead I hear the swallow's wings,And in the copse the wood-thrush softly sings.
Yet where I go I bear my prison walls; I cannot soar and sing while they arise;And those I love cannot stand heart to heart, I can but see the love-light in their eyes;I can but reach across the walls to findThe dear loved hands that should so closely bind.
O human life, thy bands are hard to bear! O world of sense, that towers above the real!O barren walls, that shut within the soul! O time-worn prison, barring our idealFrom our attaining!—could we scale thy sideHow life would widen and be glorified.
And yet my soul thou knowest what will be; How fair the country is beyond, away.Be patient, bear thy bondage for a time; Thou shalt be free to see and know some day:To know the true, and truly to be known,And soul to soul to stand before thine own.