University of Virginia Library

HAPPINESS.

Happiness! I demand thee back again,
Come—come, and o'er my Soul and Senses reign—
Not yet—I feel not yet is it too late,
Not yet hath Fate, the dark unpitying Fate,
Wholly extinguished all my kindling powers—
With the dread weight of these funereal hours;
Once more to lift my Soul from this long woe,
Thy smile of more than beauty let me know!
Thy smile of rapture—Life's divinest Star,
Let that bring peace at length, and banish war.
I have so much endured, so much despaired,
Such sorrows struggled with, such sufferings shared.
For me in my lone wretchedness—for me
Seemed nought but Night and Death and Doom to be,
My Sun went down indeed while it was day,
But I was doomed on darkened Earth to stay!
Grief hath devoured my thoughts and, worm-like fed
Upon my very heart—not cold nor dead!—
But fraught with over-Life—too keen and wild,
For ever was I Passion's truest child.—
My world around me into ruins fell,
And yet was I condemned therein to dwell,
A chaos 'twas of darkness, and of fire,
And I was not permitted to expire—
The Heavens to me seemed as a withered scroll,
The Earth one blasted wreck from pole to pole—
All Nature but one hideous ruin wide,
Dismay and horror frowned on every side,
All seemed one vast and yawning grave to be,
And yet no sheltering grave yawned there for me!
I felt I was but kept, still living there,
By the vitality of my despair—
The o'erwhelming Feeling which I writhed beneath,
Built up a barrier 'twixt myself and Death,
The universal Death, triumphant frowned
Where'er I turned my hopeless eyes around;
No sign of life nor feeling could I see,
And yet there came no Death to gladden me!
All Life concentred seemed, in my wrung Soul,
And anguish and Despair possessed the whole!
All that was Life was misery and despair,
And the dark whole fell harshly to my share!
But yet, 'tis not too late—'tis not too late,
Oh! Happiness! for thee to change my fate!
In woe, as in stern Winter, dormant lie
The germs of bountiful Fertility,
Concealed but not destroyed—the smiling Spring
Still calls to life full many a precious thing—
Oh! Happiness!—my sunny Spring be thou,
Come, come and sway my whole Existence now!