Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
LibertyWilliam Wordsworth (1770–1850)
(See full text.)
W
Reach the caged lark, within a town abode,
From his poor inch or two of daisied sod?
Oh, yield him back his privilege! No sea
Swells like the bosom of a man set free:
A wilderness is rich with liberty.
Roll on, ye spouting whales, who die or keep
Your independence in the fathomless deep!
Spread, tiny Nautilus, the living sail;
Dive, at thy choice, or brave the freshening gale!
If unreproved the ambitious eagle mount
Sunward to seek the daylight in its fount,
Bays, gulfs, and ocean’s Indian width, shall be,
Till the world perishes, a field for thee!