THE SHADOW THAT IS BORN WITH US.
One said to me: reveal the untold griefThou holdest, treasured in the inmost deep;I have experience that may counsel thee,A heart to pity—ready eyes to weep—
I see the cruel furrows in thy face,The cheek depressed, the wan and cheerless eye;I ask thee wherefore—"'tis that I am sad"—But wherefore sad? Sit here, and tell me why.
I can but tell thee; I have tried to frameThe legendary sorrows of my youth;Then wondering paused, as at a fiction strange;I spoke in fables—deeper lay the truth.
I've made impatient efforts to upliftIn words, the weight that hung upon my soul;Oh! senseless—while I battled with the air,Here lay the burthen, undisturbed and whole.
