University of Virginia Library

SONNETS.—DEFEAT—DISAPPOINTMENT.

[I. A little farther on, the shadows deep]

A little farther on, the shadows deep
Of this great forest give security,
And here, the pageant o'er, the crowd gone by,
Pride may assert the privilege to weep—
Acknowledging the earth, Humility,
That better knows the sense of pain than life,
May, for a season, yield the outward strife,
And suffer the o'erburden'd soul to sigh!
Alas! in lowliness of soul like mine,
That loathes it in a world of so much state,
How precious is this still obscurity!
Where even Fear may mock the hurt of Hate,
And the poor heart, long baffled, cease to pine,
As if new freedom rescued it from Fate!

[II. If the good star that quicken'd at my birth]

If the good star that quicken'd at my birth,
In spiritual tie and consciousness,
With that frail life, decreed a toil on earth
Which earth hath never yet allow'd to bless,
Be at this moment gazing from its place,
In search of mine, a sympathy with shame,
And the dread cloud that settles on my fame,
Will blotch for aye the beauty in her face!
Yet have I struggled till all stars grew pale,
Nor shamed them by that struggle—was it mine
To make, like theirs, the face of fortune shine,
To shield her ever from the night-cloud's veil?
Was not the struggle much, that brought distress
And pain? and is't my shame that cannot make success?