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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOST THOU ASK?, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Askest thou why in mine eyes / the tears so thickly spring?
Last Line: But thou -- thou mayest not!
Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness


ASKEST thou why in mine eyes
The tears so thickly spring?
Wherefore I do wail and sigh;
What grief my heart doth wring?
Ah! if within the presence
Of my woe thou couldst stand,
Thou wouldst pity me; but, ah!
Thou dost not understand!

Whate'er these lips, so pallid,
May breathe in sorrow deep,
They ne'er can voice the anguish
Which doth my whole heart steep.
If it could only tell thee
How, 'neath Fate's iron hand,
'T is breaking, thou wouldst pity:
Thou canst not understand!

No recent sorrow is it,
No common daily smart,
When thus by vulture talons
Torn fiercely is my heart.
Whoe'er is, while still living,
Quartered by headsman's hand,
These hellish tortures knoweth,
Thou canst not understand!

Easy it is to censure,
When we the guilt know not, --
Or fan to fiercer blazing
A fire already hot.
Who ne'er at night hath wandered
In darkness through the land,
Can never comprehend me:
Thou dost not understand!

Then leave me to my weeping
O'er all that stirs me so;
Full soon the night eternal
Brings rest to us below.
Some day, to all His children,
God will their fate allot:
He only can condemn them;
But thou -- thou mayest not!





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