September 29, 2007

The weight of too much liberty  

Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
In truth the prison, unto which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;
Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

--William Wordsworth, 1802

Comments
john  {September 30, 2007}

i'm waiting for "Scorn not the Sonnet."

paul  {September 30, 2007}

sorry... that one's not really about constraint, it's just a run down of all the famous practitioners.


Post a comment










Remember personal
information?