The linnet born within the cage,

That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes

His license in the fields of time,

Unfettered by the sense of crime,

To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,

The heart that never plighted troth,

But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;

Nor any want-begotten rest.