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, and hurl
     Their crimson lances to the stars; the list
     Of cloudy gauze that veils the timid tryst
Of pale Endymion with his Huntress Girl,—
Are lost on eyes that have no light within,
     No second sight, no lore of old romance
And nature’s alchemy through which to win
     That Soul of Things that meets no outward glance:
Seeing, they see not—worthiest to be seen—
The living Power behind the ever-moving screen.