O SWIFT, O proud, O brave, O beautiful, Thou steed, thou charger for a god, What orient plateau has thou trod? Or, coursing steppes of heaven, didst thou pull The Lord of Song In gold car, full of joy, of rapture full For thou wast strong? Oh pain! Oh wrong! Oh shame! Oh misery! For now a groom, a base-born slave, Has lashed thee; curbed thee, once so brave; Thou to be noosed by cunning! furiously To plunge, to fall, Get up, rear, stumble, snort, foam, bleed, and be Cowed after all! Ah, favourite stallion of the sun! When "Morning's Wonder" was thy name, Effortless, dauntless wouldst thou run.. So noble once, art thou so tame? Once swift, once proud, once brave, once beautiful, What pain, what wrong, what shame, what misery Has thine been that thou art not free? That at this bridle thou shouldst pull? O rash Desire, whose untaught eyes knew love, Those tears are hot: True love has ceased, has ceased to be true love; What was is not. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LITTLE GIRL FOUND, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE ANDREA DEL SARTO (CALLED THE FAULTLESS PAINTER) by ROBERT BROWNING COMRADE JESUS by SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN THREE GRAINS OF CORN; THE IRISH FAMINE by AMELIA BLANDFORD EDWARDS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 82. HOARDED JOY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI A SONG TO DAVID by CHRISTOPHER SMART UNDERWOODS: BOOK 2: 6. THE SPAEWIFE by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |