In Cornwall and Across the Sea With Poems Written in Devonshire. By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
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SYMPATHY. |
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 | In Cornwall and Across the Sea |  |
228
SYMPATHY.
Deny you that your body ails?
Oh then it is your mind that pales:
If Sickness darkens not your eye,
Her foster-sister, Grief, is by.
Oh then it is your mind that pales:
If Sickness darkens not your eye,
Her foster-sister, Grief, is by.
A gentle woman not a weak,
No trifle blenches your brave cheek;
A Spartan of the Christian strain,
Despise you only your own pain.
No trifle blenches your brave cheek;
A Spartan of the Christian strain,
Despise you only your own pain.
I cannot share your pain or woe,
Until its source you'd have me know;
Nor may I, what I feel, express
Till lips as well as looks confess.
Until its source you'd have me know;
Nor may I, what I feel, express
Till lips as well as looks confess.
229
But you have read my sympathies
In the mute message of my eyes,
Although you knew not that your pains
Awoke in me the kindred strains.
In the mute message of my eyes,
Although you knew not that your pains
Awoke in me the kindred strains.
| In Cornwall and Across the Sea | |