I cannot choose but try

Behind these prison bars

To measure earth and sky

And know the whole of stars;

And what I rede I write,

Vain visions as they rise,

Vain visions of the night,

Unworthy others’ eyes.

I said, ‘Tho’ dungeon’d here

In these deep dens of night,

My soul shall persevere

To seek supernal light;

Untainted Truth to know

From that fair face of Lies

Whose heav’nly features glow

Like Truth’s, save in the eyes;

Till, after all these years,

The wisdom come unsought

To see the stars as spheres

And sound the bounds of thought.’