Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel,the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy;bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells➁,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells➂:
In truth the prison,into which we doom
Ourselves,no prison is: and hence for me,
In sundry moods,’twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;
Pleased if some Souls(for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find brief solace there,as I have found.