For works with similar titles, see Despondency.
DESPONDENCY
Racked by care and pain and anguish,
In what utter woe I languish!
Fruitless all the seed I've sown,
Every project overthrown,
Sport of ever-adverse fate,
Helpless, hopeless, desolate!
Wherefore do I linger here,
Naught to hope for, all to fear?
Disarmed, defeated, comfort gone,
Why await another dawn?
In what utter woe I languish!
Fruitless all the seed I've sown,
Every project overthrown,
Sport of ever-adverse fate,
Helpless, hopeless, desolate!
Wherefore do I linger here,
Naught to hope for, all to fear?
Disarmed, defeated, comfort gone,
Why await another dawn?
Courage then and end thy woe. . . .
Cease, my soul, to murmur so:
Patience, fortitude, endurance,
In the end shall bring assurance
Of a blest surcease from pain,
Hope its empire shall regain:
Victorious over pain and strife
I shall joy again in life,
Or at worst time's tireless flight
Soon shall sink my noon in night.
Cease, my soul, to murmur so:
Patience, fortitude, endurance,
In the end shall bring assurance
Of a blest surcease from pain,
Hope its empire shall regain:
Victorious over pain and strife
I shall joy again in life,
Or at worst time's tireless flight
Soon shall sink my noon in night.
When my spirit faints again,
Let me think, amid my pain,
On the heroes of the past,
Whose firm spirits to the last,
Tried by fire, by rack, by halter,
Never once did faint or falter!
Matched with theirs how light my grief,
My sufferings how mild and brief!
Dare I ask to live at ease
Remembering the lot of these?
Let me think, amid my pain,
On the heroes of the past,
Whose firm spirits to the last,
Tried by fire, by rack, by halter,
Never once did faint or falter!
Matched with theirs how light my grief,
My sufferings how mild and brief!
Dare I ask to live at ease
Remembering the lot of these?
1884?