Than aught by mortal known:
We strive with brief aspirings
Against our bonds in vain;
Yet summon’d to be free at last,
We shrink—and clasp our chain;
And fearfully and mournfully
We bid the earth farewell,
Though passing from its mists, like thee,
In a brighter world to dwell.
[336] Written for a picture in which Psyche, on her flight upwards, is represented looking back sadly and anxiously to the earth.