Classic Poem

Unloved I love, unwept I weep,
Grief I restrain, hope I repress;
Vain is this anguish, fixed and deep,
Vainer desires or means of bliss.

My life is cold, love's fire being dead;
That fire self-kindled, self-consumed;
What living warmth erewhile it shed,
Now to how drear extinction doomed!

Devoid of charm how could I dream
My unasked love would e'er return?
What fate, what influence lit the flame
I still feel inly, deeply burn?

Alas! there are those who should not love;
I to this dreary band belong;
This knowing let me henceforth prove
Too wise to list delusion's song.

No, Syren! Beauty is not mine;
Affection's joy I ne'er shall know;
Lonely will be my life's decline,
Even as my youth is lonely now.

Come Reason—Science—Learning—Thought—
To you my heart I dedicate;
I have a faithful subject brought:
Faithful because most desolate.

Fear not a wandering, feeble mind:
Stern Sovereign, it is all your own
To crush, to cheer, to loose, to bind;
Unclaimed, unshared, it seeks your throne.

Soft may the breeze of summer blow,
Sweetly its sun in valleys shine;
All earth around with love may glow,—
No warmth shall reach this heart of mine.

Vain boast and false! Even now the fire
Though smothered, slacked, repelled, is burning
At my life's source; and stronger, higher,
Waxes the spirit's trampled yearning.

It wakes but to be crushed again:
Faint I will not, nor yield to sorrow;
Conflict and force will quell the brain;
Doubt not I shall be strong to-morrow.

Have I not fled that I may conquer?
Crost the dark sea in firmest faith
That I at last might plant my anchor
Where love cannot prevail to death?