Thoughts In A Zoo
They in their cruel traps, and we in ours,
Survey each other’s rage, and pass the hours Commiserating each the other’s woe,
To mitigate his own pain’s fiery glow.
Man could but little proffer in exchange Save that his cages have a larger range.
That lion with his lordly, untamed heart Has in some man his human counterpart,
Some lofty soul in dreams and visions wrapped,
But in the stifling flesh securely trapped.
Gaunt eagle whose raw pinions stain the bars That prison you, so men cry for the stars!
Some delve down like the mole far underground, (Their nature is to burrow, not to bound),
Some, like the snake, with changeless slothful eye,
Stir not, but sleep and smoulder where they lie.
Who is most wretched, these caged ones, or we,
Caught in a vastness beyond our sight to see?
Countee Cullen
Other author posts
She Of The Dancing Feet Sings
And what would I do in heaven pray, Me with my dancing feet And limbs like apple boughs that When the gusty rain winds beat
Under the Mistletoe
I did not know she'd take it so, Or else I'd never dared; Although the bliss was worth the blow, I did not know she'd take it so She stood beneath the
For A Lady I Know
She even thinks that up in heaven Her class lies late and While poor black cherubs rise at seven To do celestial chores
Lines To My Father
The many sow, but only the chosen reap; Happy the wretched host if Day be brief, That with the cool oblivion of sleep A dawnless Night may soothe the smart of grief If from the soil our sweat enriches sprout One meagre blossom for o...
