A kind of change came in my fate, I know not what had made them so, And up and down, and then athwart, My brothers' graves without a sod. I made a footing in the wall; It was not therefrom to escape, For I had buried one and all Who loved me in a human shape; And the whole earth would henceforth be A wider prison unto me; No child, no sire, no kin had I, No partner in my misery; 10 15 20 25 5 I thought of this, and I was glad, To my barred windows, and to bend I saw them and they were the same, A small, green isle, it seemed no more, It might be months, or years, or days, I ask'd not why, and reck'd not where, I learn'd to love despair, And thus when they appear'd at last, And why should I feel less than they? In quiet we had learned to dwell; To make us what we are: 5 10 15 20 25 even I Regained my freedom with a sigh. As I walked across in front of his cage in the lion house his eyes followed me with a dull indifference which was almost as piteous as pain. That royal figure, terrible in his sinewy strength, splendid in his superb beauty, framed 5 for swift running, for graceful leaping, for the wild joys of the life God had given him, was a miserable captive. The wrath and anguish of his first imprisonment had died away. No longer was it a keen and bitter agony to remember the wide, solitary plains, the refreshing 10 streams, the warm sunshine, and the cool shade. He was used to his keeper and to his narrow cage-used to the idle, impertinent crowd that came daily to watch him. Infinite weariness was in that kingly face, but the protest He accepted his fate. was gone. On both sides of his prison were later arrivals, pacing back and forth with the quick, nervous step of the newly caged, in the frantic hope that somewhere the bars might 5 open and they might step forth into freedom once more. But he knew that he was a prisoner with a life sentence. Hopeless, crushed, yet never more truly regal than in his helplessness and defeat, he looked out over the moving throng with the unconcern that was a part of his despair. 10 Anticipation, eagerness, joy, - these had faded forever from the magnificent eyes. Life had ceased to hold such emotions. Even the stir of excitement which, in the other cages, marked the drawing near of feeding time, failed to move him to anything more than a listless inter- 15 est. He took the huge joint thrust within his reach and dragged it away to the farthest corner; at least he would eat in private so far as he could. But the eager crowd pressed and jostled one another in their rude and vulgar curiosity. 20 Poor captive! In the busy street where your picture is displayed it calls forth admiring comment from thousands. But sometimes a passer-by turns away with sympathy and pity in his face, for never did Tragedy look forth more surely from human countenance than from 25 those saddened and reproachful eyes. Selected. |