William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
The AspirationJohn Norris (1657–1711)
H
Immured in this dark prison lie!
Where at the gates and avenues of sense
My Soul must watch to have intelligence;
Where but faint gleams of thee salute my sight,
Like doubtful moonshine in a cloudy night.
When shall I leave this magic Sphere,
And be all mind, all eye, all ear.
Perceives even here thy influence.
Even here thy strong magnetic charms I feel,
And pant and tremble like the amorous steel.
To lower good, and beauties less divine,
Sometimes my erroneous needle does decline;
But yet so strong the sympathy,
It turns, and points again to thee.
Which at such distance strikes my sense.
My impatient Soul struggles to disengage
Her wings from the confinement of her cage.
Would’st thou great Love this prisoner once set free,
How would she hasten to be link’d with thee!
She’d for no angel’s conduct stay,
But fly, and love on all the way.