A ray of sunlight just beyond my reach, Like Tantalus, as ancient classics teach, When for duplicity and theft immersed, In rippling waters, doomed to ceaseless thirst,-- For as his parching lips essayed to drink, The mocking waters would recede, or sink; Though luscious fruits hung pendent in his sight, To coax the palate and the appetite, Whene'er his hand reached forth with eager thrust, Those selfsame fruits resolved to baleful dust. That sunbeam, though an aggravation fair, Still closed the floodgates of complete despair. As dykes constrain, in distant lowland realms, The deluge, which engulfs and overwhelms. With final resource and expedient And all her vials of expectation spent, Fate, in her changeable kaleidoscope, Evolves new turns to reëstablish hope. That ray of sunshine, as an angel's smile, Beaming in love amid surroundings vile, Came, morn by morn, to mitigate and bless; A benediction in my bitterness. Time after time, when the approaching night Had banished every modicum of light, And clothed each outline with her sable guise, I watched the greenish glow of reptile eyes, Nor dared to slumber, till exhaustion's sleep Benumbed my senses with its stupors deep. Then, conjured by the witcheries of night, Came pleasant dreams and visions of delight, Those iridescent phantasies of air, Which mock the troubled breast in its despair; Then waking, the delusive phantoms flown, A prisoner upon a floor of stone. My fare was still the captive's mouldy crust, My chains still reeked with clotted gore and rust, The rigid shackles still retained their clutch, And clammy walls repulsed the friendly touch. Day after day, besmeared with filth and slime, In foul monotony I passed the time, Battling with vermin foes, a teeming brood, Prolific and not easily withstood: An evil pest, ubiquitous and rife, In the fecundity of insect life. In agony of body and of brain, Each breath a stifling gasp and twinge of pain, Cursing my fortune, though each fevered curse Redounding, made my agony the worse; For fits of anger seldom mollify, When vacancy reiterates the cry, Or walls of cold, unsympathetic stone Respond but hollow echoes of a groan. Though limbs as free and restless as the wind Are not to shackles readily resigned, Complaint, with oath and bitterness replete, In prisoner is doubly indiscreet. The imprecation, born of righteous wrath, Subtracts no obstacle from any path.