I had no hope my eyes to raise,

And clear them of their dreary mote;

At last men came to set me free;370

370

I asked not why, and recked not where;

It was at length the same to me,

Fettered or fetterless to be,

I learned to love despair.

And thus when they appeared at last,

And all my bonds aside were cast,

These heavy walls to me had grown

A hermitage—and all my own![34]

And half I felt as they were come

To tear me from a second home:380

380

With spiders I had friendship made,

And watched them in their sullen trade,

Had seen the mice by moonlight play,

And why should I feel less than they?

We were all inmates of one place,

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