I. 31
“Their very bones have crumbled into dust,
“So many years have past!
“So many weary ages have gone by!
“And still I linger here!
“Still groaning with the burthen of my sins,
“Have never dar’d to breathe
“The prayer to be releas’d.
“So many years have past!
“So many weary ages have gone by!
“And still I linger here!
“Still groaning with the burthen of my sins,
“Have never dar’d to breathe
“The prayer to be releas’d.
“Oh! who can tell the unspeakable misery
“Of solitude like this!
“No sound hath ever reach’d my ear
“Save of the passing wind..
“The fountain’s everlasting flow,
“The forest in the gale,
“The pattering of the shower,
“Sounds dead and mournful all.
“No bird hath ever clos’d her wing
“Upon these solitary bowers;
“No insect sweetly buzz’d amid these groves,
“From all things that have life,
“Save only me, conceal’d.
“This Tree alone, that o’er my head
“Hangs down its hospitable boughs,
“Of solitude like this!
“No sound hath ever reach’d my ear
“Save of the passing wind..
“The fountain’s everlasting flow,
“The forest in the gale,
“The pattering of the shower,
“Sounds dead and mournful all.
“No bird hath ever clos’d her wing
“Upon these solitary bowers;
“No insect sweetly buzz’d amid these groves,
“From all things that have life,
“Save only me, conceal’d.
“This Tree alone, that o’er my head
“Hangs down its hospitable boughs,
