 | Between Doubting and Daring |  |
24
Sorrow for One
Sorrow for one: nay, sorrow hath he none,
His griefs all left behind
This side the sun,
Yet mirth for two makes evermore pursue
The frown of Fate unkind,
That one shall rue;
If one be left to bear in mournful mind
Lost noontide gleams, and how the world went well
When gloaming fell;
To ask, nor answer win,
If, sorrow ended, haply joy begin,
Threaded as day and night,
Dark beads and bright,
On strands the self-same life shall spin.
His griefs all left behind
This side the sun,
Yet mirth for two makes evermore pursue
The frown of Fate unkind,
That one shall rue;
If one be left to bear in mournful mind
Lost noontide gleams, and how the world went well
When gloaming fell;
To ask, nor answer win,
If, sorrow ended, haply joy begin,
Threaded as day and night,
Dark beads and bright,
On strands the self-same life shall spin.
Was never a spell that could response compel;
No secret word from any ominous bird;
Only for wistful vows most vainly stirred
The woodland stillness with the cushat's croon;
And ever the cuckoo's echoing crystal bell
Rings on, a dwindled knell,
That swims away to dreamful shores of sleep.
No secret word from any ominous bird;
Only for wistful vows most vainly stirred
The woodland stillness with the cushat's croon;
And ever the cuckoo's echoing crystal bell
Rings on, a dwindled knell,
That swims away to dreamful shores of sleep.
Ah wake there, wake a soothfast oracle,
Or silence keep.
Or silence keep.
| Between Doubting and Daring | |