Unseeing Eyes

Ye build no prison so narrow, nor with walls
     So dense to every sunbeam’s passing glance
     As the dark cells of stolid ignorance
Where not a ray from star or planet falls;
Dragging invisible chains the victim crawls
     Hither & yonder with no sure advance,
     No conscious vision of the broad expanse
Around, & o’er him in these regal halls
Of the Great King who would have made him free
     Of all by reverent searching, but alas!
The impenetrable armor none can see
     Has shut him closer in than towers of brass,
With earth below, & star-worlds trooping by,
No path is for his feet, no window for his eye!

                                II.
     The gold of sunset, & the orient pearl
       Of early dawn, anon suffused with mist
         Of molten chrysoprase & amethyst,—
The boreal hosts that o’er the pole unfurl
Their luminous banners as they wheel, & hurl