The unicorn in captivity, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• Here sits the Unicorn
  In captivity;
  His bright invulnerability
  Captive at last

• Here sits the Unicorn
  In captivity,
  Yet free.

• He could leap the corral,
  If he rose
  To his full height;
  He could splinter the fencing light,
  With three blows
  Of his porcelain hoofs in flight —
  If he chose.
  He could shatter his prison wall,
  Could escape them all —
  If he rose,
  If he chose.

• Here sits the Unicorn;
  The wounds in his side
  Still bleed

• Dream wounds, dream ties
  Do not bind him there
  In a kingdom where
  He is unaware
  Of his wounds, of his snare.

• Here sits the Unicorn;
  Leashed by a chain of gold
  To the pomengranate tree.
  So light a chain to hold
  So fierce a beast;
  Delicate as a cross at rest
  On a maiden's breast.
  He could snap the golden chain
  With one toss of his mane,
  If he chose to move,
  If he chose to prove
  His liberty.
  But he does not choose
  What choice would lose.
  He stays, the Unicorn,
  In captivity.

• Yet look again —
  His horn is free,
  Rising above chain, fence, and tree,
  Free hymn of love; His horn
  Bursts from his tranquil brow
  Like a comet born;
  Cleaves like a galley's prow
  Into seas untorn;
  Springs like a lily, white
  From the Earth below;
  Spirals, a bird in flight
  To a longed-for height;
  Or a fountain bright,
  Spurting to light
  Of early morn —
  O luminous horn!

• Here sits the Unicorn —
  In captivity?
  In repose.

• Forgotten the strife;
  Now the need to kill
  Has died like fire,
  And the need to love
  Has replaced desire

• Quiet, the Unicorn,
  In contemplation stilled,
  With acceptance filled;
  Quiet, save for his horn;
  Alive in his horn;
  Horizontally,
  In captivity;
  Perpendicularly,
  Free.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh