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TO-DAY'S BURDEN.
Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure,
Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Now from my heart, love's deathbed, trickles, trickles,
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire:
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles,—
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire:
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles,—
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Oh vanity of vanities, desire;
Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher,
Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher,
Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
TO-DAY'S BURDEN.
"ARISE, depart, for this is not your rest."—
Oh burden of all burdens, still to arise
And still depart, nor rest in any wise!
Rolling, still rolling thus to east from west
Earth journeys on her immemorial quest.
Whom a moon chases in no different guise:
Thus stars pursue their courses, and thus flies
The sun, and thus all creatures manifest.
Oh burden of all burdens, still to arise
And still depart, nor rest in any wise!
Rolling, still rolling thus to east from west
Earth journeys on her immemorial quest.
Whom a moon chases in no different guise:
Thus stars pursue their courses, and thus flies
The sun, and thus all creatures manifest.
