McClure's Magazine/Volume 51/Number 10/Robert Chapin

by Edgar Lee Masters

Have you stood in front of the iron bars,

And watched the lion look over your head?

He sees the palm-tree and the mate,

And the waste of the tawny desert!

Are you moved by the music, or the concourse

Of melodious words?

But how are you moved except for life

That made a self of you, responding

To sounds or scenes of remembered places,

Or other spheres, perhaps?

Life is a cage! Beauty a vision

Of a freedom once enjoyed.