If I had known, nay heart, why should I mourn?
Better by far I did not know the pain
Fate had allotted me e’er I was born.
And who shall say my life has been in vain?
Life is made up of equal joy and care,
The joy I missed hath been another’s share
And every burden added to my load
Hath eased some other comrade on the road;
And God knew best, before the griefs now flown
My courage would have failed if I had known.
Some Day.
Some day when I have conned the page of pain
So closely that no lesson will remain
For me to learn, and when my lips have quaffed
Unto the dregs, pale sorrow’s bitter druaght,
Then will this troubled heart, so sorely tried,
From earthly eare and tormoil find release
And death will grant me all that life denied,
Best and oblivion and unbroken peace.
Oh! longed-for hour, when I shall calmly rest
With idle hands crossed over pulseless breast
All peacefully within my narrow bed,
Unheeding those who weep above my head,
But, Ah! They would not weep if they could know
How gladly I shall welcome death, and so
Whene’er my sobbing heart makes moan, I say
Hush, hush my heart, the time will come some day.
