Quote#God & Faith
O, who shall from this dungeon raise
Quote byAndrew Marvell · 1621–1678
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Miscellaneous Poems (1681), A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body.
English (original)
O, who shall from this dungeon raise A soul enslaved so many ways? With bolts of bones, that fettered stands In feet, and manacled in hands; Here blinded with an eye, and there Deaf with the drumming of an ear; A soul hung up, as 'twere, in chains Of nerves, and arteries, and veins; Tortured, besides each other part, In a vain head, and double heart?
— Andrew Marvell
More from Andrew Marvell
An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.
The world in all doth but two nations bear — The good, the bad; and these mixed everywhere.
For though the whole world cannot show such another, Yet we’d better by far have him than his brother.
Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
Art indeed is long, but life is short.
But at my back I always hear Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault shall sound