DIRGE
Hark! from the organ's mighty throat
Issues a sad and wailing note,
Tender, appealing and intense,
Breathing a sorrow so immense,
Such hopeless woe, such wild regret
As none who hear it may forget:
With accents mournful, solemn, slow,
How doth it speak our utter woe!
Joy visits us and hastes away,
Grief only by oar side doth stay:
No joy that all may share is known,
We may unite in grief alone:
Through laughter's loudest outburst clear
The wail of anguish you may hear;
Youth oft enough to sorrow bows,
To age no respite it allows.
We grieve for vanished joys of yore.
We grieve for friends that are no more.
We grieve for husbands, children, wives,
Whose loss leaves bare and bleak oar lives:
We grieve for health and vigour lost,
We grieve for age's torpid frost;
But most, when dead are minds and hearts.
We grieve that power to grieve departs.
1890