Till my soul beats, like a captive bird,
Against its prison grates, and longs to soar away, and mix
With immortality.
Are not the stars
Immortal? Do they not live forever
In a joy of light? Have they not looked down
From age to age upon this distant world
And watched its evolutions? Viewed its face
Change beneath the whelming flood—its cities
Sink beneath the earthquake’s shock—its mountains