The Lofty Sky

To-day I want the sky,

The tops of the high hills,

Above the last man's house,

His hedges, and his cows,

Where, if I will,

I

Down even on sheep and rook,

And of all things that

See buzzards only above:-Past all trees, past

And thorn, where nought

The desire of the

For sky, nothing but sky.

I sicken of the

And all the

Of hedge-trees.

They are no

Than weeds upon this

Of the river of

Leagues deep, leagues wide, whereI am like a fish that

In weeds and mud and

What's above him no thought.

I might be a tench for

That I can do

Down on the wealden clay.

Even the tench has

When he floats up and

Among the lily

And sees the sky, or

Not if he nothing sees:

While I,

I know that

Under that lofty

Are weeds, fields mud, and

Would arise and go

To where the lilies are.