Fiddler's Farewell/Protest in Passing
Protest in Passing
This house of flesh was never loved of me,Though I have known much love beneath its roof,Always was I a guest who stood aloof,Loth to accept such hospitality.When the house slumbered, how I woke! for thenI knew of half-escapes along the night,But now there comes a safer swifter flight:I go; nor need endure these rooms again.
I have been cowed too long by closed-in walls,By masonry of muscle, blood and bone;This quaking house of flesh that was my own,High roof-tree of the heart, see how it falls!I go—but pause upon the threshold's rust,To shake from off my feet my own dead dust.