Song + 

II + 

The Bent of Nature + 

How the might of Nature sways + 

All the world in ordered ways, + 

How resistless laws control + 

Each least portion of the whole⁠— + 

Fain would I in sounding verse + 

On my pliant strings rehearse. + 

Lo, the lion captive ta’en + 

Meekly wears his gilded chain; + 

Yet though he by hand be fed, + 

Though a master’s whip he dread, + 

If but once the taste of gore + 

Whet his cruel lips once more, + 

Straight his slumbering fierceness wakes, + 

With one roar his bonds he breaks, + 

And first wreaks his vengeful force + 

On his trainer’s mangled corse. + 

And the woodland songster, pent + 

In forlorn imprisonment, + 

Though a mistress’ lavish care + 

Store of honeyed sweets prepare; + 

Yet, if in his narrow cage, + 

As he hops from bar to bar, + 

He should spy the woods afar, + 

Cool with sheltering foliage, + 

All these dainties he will spurn, + 

To the woods his heart will turn; + 

Only for the woods he longs, + 

Pipes the woods in all his songs. + 

To rude force the sapling bends, + 

While the hand its pressure lends; + 

If the hand its pressure slack, + 

Straight the supple wood springs back. + 

Phoebus in the western main + 

Sinks; but swift his car again + 

By a secret path is borne + 

To the wonted gates of morn. + 

Thus are all things seen to yearn + 

In due time for due return; + 

And no order fixed may stay, + 

Save which in th’ appointed way + 

Joins the end to the beginning + 

In a steady cycle spinning. + 