IN prison, to and fro you pace, Iron bars bind the world of space. Your loud reverberating roar Spreads upon the atmosphere Like water, pushed before A bulky keel. Muscles of your massive jaws, Sinews of your powerful paws, Are firm as steel; But children laugh at you, and jeer, With no pity, with no fear. In dull solitude you pace To and fro your narrow space, Year on year. Of the jungle do you keep Your kingdom, in your sleep? Roaming, with your cubs and mate Its great Peering silence, mile on mile; Knowing no trap of human guile; When you come, the weak and small Hurried find their hiding place— Where no iron bars bind space. You pace and gaze, with growling rage— On holidays, As gaping crowds drift past your cage: Nurse-maids and children, talking shrilly; Troops of mischief-brimming boys; Whispering school-girls, giggling silly; White collared laborer, rugged and tanned, Holding secure a child's small hand. ... In your wild, resentful hate, Would you feel avenged If you could know— As, captive, to and fro you go— Each so heedless of your woe, Is fettered too, in prison walls, Soon or late, Puppet of a grinning fate? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...READY TO KILL by CARL SANDBURG THE DADDY STRAIN by KAREN SWENSON EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA; A DRAMATIC POEM by MATTHEW ARNOLD NEED OF LOVING by STRICKLAND GILLILAN THOSE EVENING BELLS by THOMAS MOORE ON THE SUN COMING OUT IN THE AFTERNOON by HENRY DAVID THOREAU |