Or if I filled the soul with light,

And bore its buoyant wing in air—

To plunge it down in deeper night,

And mock its maniac wanderings there—

I did but wield the wand of power,

That God intrusted to my clasp,

And not, the tyrant of an hour—

Will I resign it to Death's grasp!

The despot with his iron chain,

In idle bonds the limbs may bind—