Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE BLACK FOREST by AMY LEVY

First Line: I LAY BENEATH THE PINE TREES
Last Line: FOR JOY IT NEVER HAD.
Subject(s): GRIEF; SORROW; SADNESS;
I LAY beneath the pine trees,
And looked aloft, where, through
The dusky, clustered tree-tops,
Gleamed rent, gay rifts of blue.

I shut my eyes, and a fancy
Fluttered my sense around :
"I lie here dead and buried,
And this is churchyard ground.

"I am at rest for ever ;
Ended the stress and strife."
Straight I fell to and sorrowed
For the pitiful past life.

Right wronged, and knowledge wasted ;
Wise labour spurned for ease ;
The sloth and the sin and the failure ;
Did I grow sad for these ?

They had made me sad so often ;
Not now they made me sad ;
My heart was full of sorrow
For joy it never had.





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