 | Lays of Leisure Hours |  |
486
MINE IS A GRIEF.
Mine is a Grief that time shall scarce make less,
It is indeed a dark and dire distress,
When Thoughts and Feelings strangely still at strife,
Divide us in the Deep of our own Life!
It is indeed a dark and dire distress,
When Thoughts and Feelings strangely still at strife,
Divide us in the Deep of our own Life!
These struggling upwards to their native home,
And those abiding by their Mortal doom,
So the Soul's deepest depths are roused and stirred,
And war for such war were too weak a word!
And those abiding by their Mortal doom,
So the Soul's deepest depths are roused and stirred,
And war for such war were too weak a word!
Oh! heavy, hopeless, and profound distress,
It is indeed the worst of loneliness—
This solitude of separate Thoughts and Wills,
Which with strange doubts the haunted Spirit fills;
It is indeed the worst of loneliness—
This solitude of separate Thoughts and Wills,
Which with strange doubts the haunted Spirit fills;
487
Aye! lonely 'tis in self-division thus
When 'gainst ourselves ourselves grow mutinous,
When—in the centre of the living Soul
Betwixt our Hopes, such waves, such oceans roll!—
When 'gainst ourselves ourselves grow mutinous,
When—in the centre of the living Soul
Betwixt our Hopes, such waves, such oceans roll!—
When we are parted with mysterious power,
Even self from self through Life's long torture-hour
As but this inborn feud of Feeling parts—
That plants a Death within our heart of hearts!
Even self from self through Life's long torture-hour
As but this inborn feud of Feeling parts—
That plants a Death within our heart of hearts!
It is indeed the dreariest loneliness,
The sharpest strife, the deepest worst distress,
When Thoughts and Feelings with unnatural strife
Divide us in the Deep of our own Life!
The sharpest strife, the deepest worst distress,
When Thoughts and Feelings with unnatural strife
Divide us in the Deep of our own Life!
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