And walk as free as light the clouds among,
Which many an envious slave then breath’d in vain
From his dim dungeon, and my spirit sprung
To meet thee from the woes which had begirt it long....”
From Philip’s tone as he continued the poem, it might have been supposed that he, too, had a young and unloved wife, a rebellious father, a sweet-heart ready to fly with him in the manner suggested by some other lines which he uttered with conviction:
“A ship is floating in the harbour now,
A wind is hovering o’er the mountain’s brow;
There is a path on the sea’s azure floor,
No keel has ever ploughed the path before;
The halcyons brood around the foamless isles;