Ada Cambridge (1844-1926)
Influence
1As in the mists of embryonic night,
2 Out of the deep and dark obscurities
3 Of Nature’s womb, the little life-germs rise,
4Pushing by instinct upward to the light;
5As, when the first ray dawns on waking sight,
6 They leap to liberty, and recognize
7 The golden sunshine and the morning skies
8Their own inheritance by inborn right; --
9So do our brooding thoughts and deep desires
10 Grow in our souls, we know not how or why;
11 Grope for we know not what, all blind and dumb.
12So, when the time is ripe, and one aspires
13 To free his thought in speech, ours hear the cry,
14 And to full birth and instant knowledge come.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text:
Publication date note: Unspoken Thoughts (New South Wales: English Department, University College, 1988): 23.
Revised in The Hand in the Dark and Other Poems.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition:
Recent editing: 1:2004/8/6
Other poems by Ada Cambridge
