Wide, open, free, unbounded, vast, We leagueless stretch the wide world o'er: Above us sweeps the desert blast, Or booms the lion's reverberate roar Or the long howl of wolves that race Like shadows o'er the moonlit space In tireless, swift, relentless chase. We are the haunt of all the winds, O'er us as o'er the sea they sweep In boundless freedom: each blast finds A leagueless waste whereo'er to leap And race unchecked, -- and day and night We hear the wild rush of their flight, A desert-music infinite. Ten thousand leagues of grassy plain We stretch, or trackless wastes of sand: O'er us no mortal king doth reign, But Bedouin or savage band And wild-eyed beasts of prey alone Wander about our tameless zone; That bondage never yet hath known. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPISTLE IN FORM OF A BALLAD TO HIS FRIENDS by FRANCOIS VILLON A BALLAD OF HELL by JOHN DAVIDSON ARMS AND THE BOY by WILFRED OWEN LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 10. THE FAIR by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM INSTEAD OF TEARS by JOSEPH AUSLANDER A CHARACTER OF JOHN MORT by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH; ON THE PUBLICATION OF HIS POEM, 'PETER BELL' by BERNARD BARTON |