THE PRISON FLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9193, 6 May 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PRISON FLY.

High overhead within my cell A ray of sunshine stream*, As if of those fair fields to tell, That mock mo in my dreams. I cannot feel its feeble glow, It doth not cheer my sight, But darker grows tho gloom below That bridge of golden light. One morn when on my bed of straw In wretched plight I lay, A solitary fly I saw, That danced amid tho ray. Now here and there and round about It flew in lonely glee. The bare stone walls it seemed to flout And sing, "I'm free, I'm free." I watched the little merry sprite That share;', myflungeon air, Until it soemed with heart of srtito To sport with my despair. It* wings that shone with rainbow hue 3 Did taunt me with their bloom; Its tiny trill made deeper still The silence of my tomb. , I gazed in Fancy's gloomiest moodIt grew a devil there; No form of goodness ever could ' So trifle with my care. It did not heed my bursting tears, . In mo it had no part; A storm without might rouse its fears; Not that within my heart. Though caged like me it did not seem . To miss the summer bowers. But made the motes that filled the beam The playthings of its hours. 0 heartless fly! would God that I ! Might so forgetful bo. Blot out all thought of earth and sky And so like thee be free 1 < H.J.B.