The Lofty Sky + 

To-day I want the sky, + 

The tops of the high hills, + 

Above the last man’s house, + 

His hedges, and his cows, + 

Where, if I will, I look + 

Down even on sheep and rook, + 

And of all things that move + 

See buzzards only above:⁠— + 

Past all trees, past furze + 

And thorn, where nought deters + 

The desire of the eye + 

For sky, nothing but sky. + 

I sicken of the woods + 

And all the multitudes + 

Of hedge-trees. They are no more + 

Than weeds upon this floor + 

Of the river of air + 

Leagues deep, leagues wide, where + 

I am like a fish that lives + 

In weeds and mud and gives + 

What’s above him no thought. + 

I might be a tench for aught + 

That I can do to-day + 

Down on the wealden clay. + 

Even the tench has days + 

When he floats up and plays + 

Among the lily leaves + 

And sees the sky, or grieves + 

Not if he nothing sees: + 

While I, I know that trees + 

Under that lofty sky + 

Are weeds, fields mud, and I + 

Would arise and go far + 

To where the lilies are. + 