The Prisoner

I count the dismal time by months and years,

Since last I felt the green sward under foot,

And the great breath of all things summer-mute

Met mine upon my lips. Now earth appears

As strange to me as dreams of distant spheres,

Or thoughts of Heaven we weep at! Nature's lute

Sounds on behind this door so closely shut,

A strange, wild music to the prisoner's ears,

Dilated by the distance, till the brain

Grows dim with fancies which it feels too fine;

While ever, with a visionary pain,

Past the precluded senses, sweep and shine

Streams, forests, glades,—and many a golden train

Of sunlit hills, transfigured to Divine.