In a Single Room

This poem plays on the use of the word "single" and its close cousin "singular."

In a single room, with barren walls,
Through a narrow pane, the sunlight falls
And caroms aslant, at close of day,
From shadows drawn by its moted ray.

To a single mind, of stark surrounds,
And straitened frame, the light redounds
Inchoate to the single eye,
But full imparts where the shadows lie.

But a single life, all unadorned,
Embracing late what it early scorned,
Exults, released by the shedding light
From years bound up in a single night.