Truth flies the world--one falsehood taints the sky Each form a phantom, and each word a lie! "Yet what am I?--the crush'd and baffled foe, Who dared the strife, yet would denounce the blow. What arms had I against this world to wield? What mail the naked savage heart to shield? To this hoar world I brought the trusts of youth, Warm zeal for men, and fix'd repose in truth-- Amongst the young I look'd for young desires, Love which adores, and Honour which aspires-- Amongst the old, for souls set free from all The earthlier chains which young desires enthrall, Serene and gentle both to soothe and chide, The sires to pity, yet the seers to guide-- And lo! this civilised and boasted plan, This order'd ring and harmony of man, One hideous, cynic, levelling orgy, where Youth Age's ice, and Age Youth's fever share-- The unwrinkled brow, the calculating brain, The passion balanced with the weights of gain, And Age more hotly clutching than the boy At the lewd bauble and the gilded toy. "Why should I murmur?--why accuse the strong? I own Earth's law--the conquer'd are the wrong, Am I ambitious?--in this world I stand Closed from the race, an Alien in the land. Dare I to love?--O soul, O heart, forget That dream, that frenzy!--what is left me yet? Revenge!"--His dark eyes flash'd--yet straightway died The passionate lightning--"No!--revenge denied! All the wild man in the tame slave is dead, The currents stagnate in the girded bed! Back to my desert!--yet, O sorcerer's draught, O smooth false world,--what soul that once has quaff'd, Renounces not the ancient manliness? _Now_, could the Desert the charm'd victim bless? Can the caged bird, escaped from bondage, share As erst the freedom of the hardy air? Can the poor peasant, lured by Wealth's caprice To marts and domes, find the old native peace In the old hut?--on-rushing is the mind: It ne'er looks back on what it leaves behind. Once cut the cable and unfurl the sail, And spreads the boundless sea, and drifts the hurrying gale! "Come then, my Soul, thy thoughts thy desert be! Thy dreams thy comrades!--I escape to thee! Within, the gates unbar, the airs expand, No bound but Heaven confines the Spirit's Land! Such luxury yet as what of Nature lives In Art's lone wreck, the lingering instinct gives; Joy in the sun, and mystery in the star, Light of the Unseen, commune with the Far; Man's law,--his fellow, ev'n in scorn, to save, And hope in some just World beyond the Grave!"