Why Must I Thus Forever Be Confined

Why must I thus forever bee confin’d
Against the noble2
 Freedome of my Mind
When as each hoarie Moth, and Gaudy Fly3
Within their Spheirs injoy their Liberty
The Virgin Bee her4
 luscious Cell forsakes
And on A Thousand Flowers pleasure Takes5
The glistring Beetle casts her Stag like Horns
The next Year new her Stately Front adorns
Shee Rowls her Unctious Embrio6
 East & West
To call great Nature who hears her behest
The Silk worm Feeds, then Works, then Shee involv’s7
,
Her Self, then Breeds, then Flies till Shee dissolv’s8
The Bassalisk9
 that kils by Fascination10
Is not Like mee tid’e to one Habitation
Noe nor the Catablepe11
 whose poysonous eye
Where ere Shee goes makes Grass and Flowers die
Though these destroy yet may they freely Range
Whils’t I am Shut up in a Countrey Grange12
My looks though Sad would make my freind13
 revive
Why must I then bee buried thus alive
The Amphisbena14
 that at both’s ends Kill
Doth Freely Slide about where e’re Shee will
The Dipsus15
 that doth make Men die with Quaffing
And the Tarantula that Kils with Laughing16
With that Bold Worm which Kild the Egiptian Queen17
All Freely crauling ’bout the World are Seen
Thus Inscects, Reptals18
 that Spontaneus breed19
From Such a Solitude as mine are Freed
And I (oh my Sad heart) and onely I
Must in this Sad confinement living Die20
The Swiftest Dolphin and the vastest Whale
Are not immured as I in Walle or Pale21
But every Sort of Fish even as they please
Doe Dive and Swim about the Spacious Seas
Though the dull Oyster22
 from A Rock is torn
Yet Shee with Sayls, and Wind and Tide is boarn
Or’e all the Swelling Billons23
 at her Pleasure
Untill the Cunning Crab on her takes Seasure
The Flying Fish though Shee doth oft despair24
Yet shee commands the Seas and vaster Ayr
And those Fair Birds which hover Still above
Which are Soe Farr indulgent to their Love
To let their Females lay upon their Back25
Noe Noble Freedome Surely they can lack
Nor doe they Fear the terrables’t Tirants lower26
Should shut them in a Basteel or a Tower27
For they disdain to touch this dunghill earth28
Thus they injoy the Freedome of their Birth
But I to Solitude am Still confind29
The cruelst Curb unto A Noble Mind
The Halcion30
 that Calms the Rufling Seas
Is not Restraind but Flyes where ere Shee please
Nor doth the Swan on Thames her31
 Silver Breast
Ask leave to Rise of from her Downey Nest
The Rav’nous Ravens Deaff to their Young on’s cry32
May in the Spacious Ayr most Freely Fly
But I aboue33
 my life my Children Love
Yet I to comfort them cannot Remoue
The Foolish Ostridg34
 doth her egs expose
To Thousand dangers er’e they doe disclose35
Yet proudly Shee by wind and Wing is boarn
The Swiftest Hors and Rider Shee doth Scorn36
But I for mine would willingly dissolve37
Yet Sad obscurity doth mee involve38
The mild and Tenderhearted Turtle Dove
That was Soe constant to her onely Love
Though Shee resolves to haue noe Second make39
Yet Shee her Flieght abuot the Ayr doth take
But I that am more constant then this Dove
Unto my First and last and onely Love40
Cannot from this Sad place (Ay mee) Remove.
The Cuckow that doth put her egs to Nurs
Then eats thear Foster Brothers41
 which is wors
Yet this Curst Embleme of ingratitude
Is not like mee inslavd to Solitude42
All volateeles43
 from the Eagle to the Dove
Their Freedome freely both injoy and Love
But I noe liberty expect to have
Untill I find my Freedome in my Grave
The Swiftest Su44
, noe Liberty can Lack
That bears her Spritely ofspring on her back
The Cannibal45
 when Shee the Huntman hears
Her pretty young lings in a Wallet46
 bears
Thus from Pursuers they are all Secure
But these Sad Shades doth mee Ay mee immure
That I cannot assist mine in their Sorrow47
Which makes mee Sigh & weep both Eve and Morrow
The Lyon, Tiger, Elaphant, and Bear:
And Thousands more, doe noe confinement Fear.
Thus Beasts, Birds, Fishes48
, Equivocall Worm49
 & Fly
Injoy more liberty (woes mee50
) then I
Wer’t for my God, King51
, Countrey, or my Freind,
My Love, my Children, twere a Noble End
Or wer’t for Sin my guilty Head I wo’d hide
And Patiently the Stroke of Death abide
Or wer’t my veniall52
 Slip’s to expiate53
Then my Restraint would have a happie Date54
Or wert for debt I Soon could pay that Score55
But t’is, Oh my Sad Soul, I’le, Say noe more56
To God alone my Suffrings Il’e deplore.57

For I noe Liberty expect to See
Untill to Atoms58
 I dispersed bee
Then beeing infranchis’d59
 Free as my Verse
I Shall Surround this Spacious Universe
Untill by other Atoms thrust and hurl’d
Wee give a beeing to a nother World60
.

Why must I thus forever bee confin’d1

Why Must I Thus Foreve…

“Creatures venomous, and offensive to man”

Good and Bad Animal Parents

Speculations about Multiple Worlds

Versifying Captivity