The Solitude ....

I AM monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute

The beasts that roam over the plain
My form with indifference see—
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.

The solitude of Alexander Selkirk! It is enchanting- now more than ever. Strange how somethings you read just stick to your mind unattended and then flash back some day. We were made to mug up these poems in childhood- to what end I wonder? So that years later, at some point they might come back to us when we had the ability to appreciate them!

Selkirk is marooned on an island, where no one knows him, the animals are too trusting, too naive to be afraid him and include him in their brood. He is finally free to do what he wants, no society, no bonds, no rules, no haunting past, he can make a new life starting from scratch! He feels like he rules the place!!
He can as Rand would say live only for himself at last!

But he is alone, no family, no friends, no one to think about, no one to talk to, no one to compete with, no one he would want to impress. Only a bunch of animals he knows he does not belong to!
What a life..........
But then there's hope as he says:

There's mercy in every place;
And mercy—encouraging thought!—
Gives even affliction a grace,
And reconciles man to his lot. :)