"I am thy soul, Nikoptis. I have watched These five millenia, and thy dead eyes Moved not, nor ever answer my desire, And thy light limbs, wherethrough I leapt aflame, Burn not with me nor any saffron thing. See, the light grass sprang up to pillow thee, And kissed thee with a myriad grassy tongues; But not thou me. I have read out the gold upon the wall, And wearied out my thought upon the signs. And there is no new thing in all this place. I have been kind. See, I have left the jars sealed, Lest thou shouldst wake and whimper for thy wine. And all thy robes I have kept smooth on thee. O thou unmindful! How should I forget! -- Even the river many days ago, The river? thou wast over young. And three souls came upon Thee -- And I came. And I flowed in upon thee, beat them off; I have been intimate with thee, known thy ways. Have I not touched thy palms and finger-tips, Flowed in, and through thee and about thy heels? How 'came I in'? Was I not thee and Thee? And no sun comes to rest me in this place, And I am torn against the jagged dark, And no light beats upon me, and you say No word, day after day. Oh! I could get me out, despite the marks And all their crafty work upon the door, Out through the glass-green fields. . . . Yet it is quiet here: I do not go." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPECIMEN OF AN INDUCTION TO A POEM by JOHN KEATS LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY E TENEBRIS [FROM THE SHADOWS] by OSCAR WILDE DUNCTON HILL by HILAIRE BELLOC THE MAPLE TREE OVER THE WAY by LEVI BISHOP LITTLE THINGS by EBENEZER COBHAM BREWER NOVEMBER by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SONNET ON MOOR PARK - WRITTEN AUGUST 20, 1807 by SAMUEL EGERTON BRYDGES |