I visited the Zoo one dreary day,

And in the lion’s house I watched a lion,

A great Numidian lion in his cage,

With eyes three-quarters closed, with haughty gait,

Pace up and down the limits of his cage.

Was he oblivious of the tyrant bars,

The gaze of human eyes, his captive state,

And did he blink but better thus to see

The jungle’s vast expanse?

He suddenly stood still; and, face to face,

We stood and stared into each other’s eyes,

And we each saw in one another’s eyes

A royal captive in a wretched cage.