When austere hunger, the stern lord of all,
Shut me from day, the mountainous and free,
To sell for bread my golden liberty,
In her chief city her obscurest thrall,
I turned to night, deep night primordial;
On the bleak housetop I went up to see,
And in my desolation came to me
The starry vision of the flaming wall.

By chastening sorrow rendered fit and wise,
My utter dearth gave me immortal eyes,
And when night broke the day's blue dome, I passed
Coeval, outward where eternity
Fills her long coasts with winds than ours more vast
And radiance whiter than the polar sea.