To A Seagull Poem by David Mitchell

Do not torment me, unimprison'd bird!
For thou art free above the earth to soar
Whither thou wilt, flying, without a word,
Away from me, who will never see thee more;

But I am bound, foot-fast, to the stern ground,
I am entrapp'd, restricted, and constrain'd:
Here happiness is never to be found,
But forcéd smiles through aching sorrow feign'd.

Now thou art gone - and whither art thou fled?
To some more pleasant clime than this grey gloom?
But both of us will very soon be dead,
And meet with our inevitable doom.

I wish that I had been a bird like thee
To suffer and not know this direful pain:
For then, oh! then, I'd have been fully free,
And then I might know happiness again.