Explore "To Althea, from Prison" by Alice Meynell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fettered to her eye;
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.
When flowing cups run swiftly round / With no allaying Thames, / Our careless heads with roses crowned, / Our hearts with loyal flames; / When thirsty grief in wine we steep, / When healths and draughts go free, / Fishes that tipple in the deep / Know no such liberty.
When (like committed linnets) I / With shriller throat shall sing / The sweetness, mercy, majesty / And glories of my King; / When I shall voice aloud how good / He is, how great should be, / Enlarged winds that curl the flood / Know no such liberty.
Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage; / Minds innocent and quiet take / That for an hermitage; / If I have freedom in my love, / And in my soul am free, / Angels alone that soar above / Enjoy such liberty.