Limitation

AS when the imperial bird, wide-circling, soarsFrom his lonely eyrie, towered above the seasThat wash the wild and rugged Hebrides,A force which he unconsciously adoresBounds the majestic flight that heaven explores,And droops his haughty wing; as when the breezeTempts to o'erleap their changeless boundariesThe waves that tumble foaming to those shores;

So thou, my soul! impatient of restriction,With deathless hopes and longings all aglow,Aspirest still, and still the stern predictionStays thee, as them,—"No further shalt thou go!"But, ah! the eagle feels not thine affliction,Nor can the broken waves thy disappointment know.