Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Louise ChandlerMoulton

626 Were but My Spirit Loosed upon the Air

WERE but my spirit loosed upon the air,—

By some High Power who could Life’s chains unbind,

Set free to seek what most it longs to find,—

To no proud Court of Kings would I repair:

I would but climb, once more, a narrow stair,

When day was wearing late, and dusk was kind;

And one should greet me to my failings blind,

Content so I but shared his twilight there.

Nay! well I know he waits not as of old,—

I could not find him in the old-time place,—

I must pursue him, made by sorrow bold,

Through worlds unknown, in strange Celestial race,

Whose mystic round no traveller has told,

From star to star, until I see his face.