SOMETIMES I smile, sometimes I sigh, But mostly sorrow fills my heart; The present and the future lie, Like two grim shadows, just apart. I change as often as the clouds, That on a gusty morning run In cold and sad and solemn crowds To bar and blind the faithful sun. Why come these thoughts in baleful forms To darken life's too fleeting hours, E'en as the summer's sullen storms That sob their gloom away in showers? I cannot smile as others smile, Nor yet be merry half so long; For sorrow fills me even while I yearn to sing a joyous song. The knowledge that my youth is gone Broods ever darkly on the mind; I look, as some poor hapless one, For what he needs but cannot find. I long in vain for peace or rest, And mourn each lost and faded scene, Like some poor bird that finds its nest All vacant where its young had been. Pain waits on pleasure evermore, To blanch its blush, to dim its light; To mock it when its dreams are o'er, When all its charms have taken flight. And thus it is we cannot sing, Or long be joyous, when we're old; When summer hours have taken wing, The flowers must perish in the cold! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOHRAB AND RUSTUM by MATTHEW ARNOLD WESSEX HEIGHTS by THOMAS HARDY A SONNET. ON THE PICTURE OF CAVALIER GUARINI PAINTED BY BORGIANNI by PHILIP AYRES IN ANSWER TO QUESTION FROM GREEK GRAMMAR: WHAT FUTURES SPEAK by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD AT SABBATH DOWN by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |