World-Strangeness / William Watson

World-Strangeness

Strange the world about me lies,
     Never yet familiar grown —
Still disturbs me with surprise,
     Haunts me like a face half known.

In this house with starry dome,
     Floored with gemlike plains and seas,
Shall I never feel at home,
     Never wholly be at ease?

On from room to room I stray,
     Yet my Host can ne'er espy,
And I know not to this day
     Whether guest or captive I.

So, between the starry dome
     And the floor of plains and seas,
I have never felt at home,
     Never wholly been at ease.

~~~
William Watson (1858-1935)
from The Poems of William Watson, 1893


[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

William Watson biography