Poems (Commelin)/Questioning
QUESTIONING.
My little bird within his cage is singing
His gay, sweet song;
With joyous melody the room is ringing
The whole day long.
His gay, sweet song;
With joyous melody the room is ringing
The whole day long.
Beyond his gilded cage he has no dreaming,
His all, his home:
No care beside e'er shades his happy seeming,
No wish to roam.
His all, his home:
No care beside e'er shades his happy seeming,
No wish to roam.
But when I ope his cage and bid him enter
The mansion wide,
Where rooms and halls diverge as from a centre
On every side,
The mansion wide,
Where rooms and halls diverge as from a centre
On every side,
He mutely stands to turn and gaze and wonder
At space so vast:
Relations old and sense secure asunder
Are rent at last.
At space so vast:
Relations old and sense secure asunder
Are rent at last.
So when, with midnight's radiance streaming o'er us,
From earth we gaze
To worlds on worlds and spaces vast before us,
Our thoughts we raise,—
From earth we gaze
To worlds on worlds and spaces vast before us,
Our thoughts we raise,—
We mutely stand to gaze with awe and longing
Upon the sky,
Where suns and stars and planets fair are thronging
In majesty:—
Upon the sky,
Where suns and stars and planets fair are thronging
In majesty:—
Where ends creation? where is its beginning?
Is our refrain:
From the dread silences no answer winning—
We ask in vain.
Is our refrain:
From the dread silences no answer winning—
We ask in vain.