University of Virginia Library


255

HUMAN TEARS.

All have once wept; the eye was made for tears,
As the low cloud for rain; yes, all have wept,
Or yet shall weep ere life's remorseless years
Have o'er us with their storms and shadows swept.
All have once wept; dry age and greenest prime,
The strong and weak, the foolish and the wise.
O ever-falling mists of shadowy time!
O endless tears, that drop from human eyes!

256

Some openly, as not ashamed to weep;
Some secretly, upon the lonesome bed,
When grief has battled with and conquered sleep,
And memories rise, like spectres from the dead.
Some from a mighty grief that cries aloud,
And tells its tale with wailing unsubdued;
Some from a hidden wound, which unavowed
Aches secretly in lonely solitude.