Spirit, bright spirit! from thy narrow cell <br />Answer me! answer me! oh, let me hear <br />Thy voice, and know that thou indeed art near! <br />That from the bonds in which thou'rt forced to dwell <br />Thou hast not broken free, thou art not fled, <br />Thou hast not pined away, thou art not dead. <br />Speak to me through thy prison bars; my life, <br />With all things round, is one eternal strife, <br />'Mid whose wild din I pause to hear thy voice; <br />Speak to me, look on me, thou born of light! <br />That I may know thou'rt with me, and rejoice. <br />Shall not this weary warfare pass away? <br />Shall there not come a better, brighter day? <br />Shall not thy chain and mine be broken quite? <br />And thou to heaven spring, <br />With thine immortal wing, <br />And I, still following, <br />With steps that do not tire, <br />Reach my desire, <br />And to thy worship bring <br />Some worthy offering. <br /> <br />Oh, let but these dark days be once gone by, <br />And thou, unwilling captive, that dost strain, <br />With tiptoe longing, vainly, towards the sky, <br />O'er the whole kingdom of my life shalt reign. <br />But, while I'm doomed beneath the yoke to bow, <br />Of sordid toiling in these caverns drear, <br />Oh, look upon me sometimes with thy brow <br />Of shining brightness; sometimes let me hear <br />Thy blessed voice, singing the songs of heaven, <br />Whence thou and I, together, have been driven; <br />Give me assurance that thou still art nigh, <br />Lest I sink down beneath my load, and die.<br /><br />Frances Anne Kemble<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-invocation-4/
