There is a panther caged within my breast, <br />But what his name, there is no breast shall know <br />Save mine, nor what it is that drives him so, <br />Backward and forward, in relentless quest- <br />That silent rage, baffled but unsuppressed, <br />The soft pad of the stealthy feet that go <br />Over my body's prison to and fro, <br />Trying the walls forever without rest. <br /> <br />All day I feed him with my living heart, <br />But when the night puts forth her dreams and stars, <br />The inexorable frenzy re-awakes: <br />His wrath is hurled upon the trembling bars, <br />The eternal passion stretches me apart, <br />And I lie silent- but my body shakes.<br /><br />John Hall Wheelock<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-black-panther/
