To feel for one moment the manacles drop?
--_'Tis rest then you want, and you fain would forget?
To rest and oblivion they'll carry you yet._

The flow'rs and the trees will have withered ere long,
The last bird already is ending his song;
And soon will be leafless and shadeless the bow'rs...
I long, oh I long for the perfume of flow'rs!
To feel for a moment ere stripped are the trees,
In meadow lands open, the breath of the breeze.
--_You long for the meadow lands breezy and fair?
O, soon enough others will carry you there._

The rivulet sparkles with heavenly light,
The wavelets they glisten, with diamonds bedight.
Oh, but for a moment to leap in the stream,
And play in the waters that ripple and gleam!
My body is weakened with terrible toil.--
The bath would refresh me, renew me the while.
--_You dream of a bath in the shimmering stream?
'Twill come--when forever is ended your dream._

The sweatshop is smoky and gloomy and mean--
I strive--oh, how vainly I strive to be clean!
All day I am covered with grime and with dirt.
You'd laugh,--but I long for a spotless white shirt!
For life that is noble, 'tis needful, I ween,
To work as a man should; and still be as clean.
--_So now 'tis your wish all in white to be dressed?
In white they will robe you, and lay you to rest._