When I am only I, <br />The secret battle--ground <br />Of world and will, wherein <br />Self is so strictly bound, <br /> <br />Then am I condemned; <br />Then can I understand <br />The heart crumbling to dust <br />And the eyes stopt with sand. <br /> <br />But when, self fallen asleep, <br />Quickens through all my veins <br />The entrancing light, and stream <br />The rivers and the rains, <br /> <br />Though to the wondrous earth <br />The tendril senses cling <br />And amid living leaves <br />I, as a bird, sing. <br /> <br />The breath comes of a world <br />Beyond all human moan. <br />There I am lost, and there <br />I am come into mine own.<br /><br />Robert Laurence Binyon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-i-am-only-i/
