Laocoön + 

This spirit-choking atmosphere + 

With deadly serpent-coil + 

Entwines 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 decree + 

Shall 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! + 