Bronze (Johnson)/Laocoon

by Georgia Douglas Camp Johnson

LAOCOÖN

This spirit-choking atmosphere With deadly serpent-coilEntwines my soaring-upwardness And chains me to the soil,Where'er I seek with eager stride To gain yon gleaming height,These noisesome fetters coil aloft And snare my buoyant flight.

O, why these aspirations bold, These rigours of desire,That surge within so ceaselessly Like living tongues of fire?And why these glowing forms of hope That scintillate and shine,If naught of all that burnished dream Can evermore be mine?

It cannot be, fate does not mock, And man's untoward decreeShall not forever thus confine My life's entirety,My every fibre fierce rebels Against this servile role,And all my being broods to break This death-grip from my soul!