Your soul bears the same resemblance to a healthy soul That a new corpse bears to a healthy body. Mask Of life, so line for line correct, you ask No spark to mar the symmetry of the whole. Why spurn the key to unlock these golden bars That make of the vast beyond, a stupid tale? The confines of your richly furnished jail Shine brilliant in the light of myriad stars That satisfy your mind; and when you hear Of glory shed in radiance by a sun, You laugh, as fools like you have always done. Strange it is to me, you have no fear; So quick with life, so adequately fed, Chained to a starved soul, beautiful and dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A MID-DAY DREAMER by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON STREET CRIES: 6. TO RICHARD WAGNER by SIDNEY LANIER NOW CLOSE THE WINDOWS by ROBERT FROST MEN WHO MARCH AWAY' (SONG OF THE SOLDIERS) by THOMAS HARDY THE SPIRIT OF POETRY by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |