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Salient: Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Vol. 32, No. 5. 1969.

An Admonition Against Glazing

An Admonition Against Glazing

We are people who live behind glass,
To our own deprivation, alas.
We seem not to know that we lose
Half the view when weg laze
The windows of our houses
And carriages and cars. A dull haze is
Thereby interposed between the sight
For our consideration and our eyesight.
In daylight the dust and grime
Implicate us in the crime
Of poor perception. By night the loss
Of vision is due rather to the glass
Than to the dark. Glass tries to be transparent,
But its success is merely apparent,
For at no time is there not a slight
Diminution of vision and when light
Falls on the glass from the observer's side
It can become impossible to see outside.
Alike when the sun is set or risen,
Our sight lies shut up in a prison.
Since the glass makes our vision not better
But worse, we are a willing abettor
To the theft of sight if we do not batter
The glass to pieces, if we do not shatter
The pane, or at least open the shutter.
Otherwise be sure we will end at last,
As the fly in amber, a man in glass.

Niel Wright