Poems (Blagden)/Despondancy
DESPONDENCY.
NO. I.
My life is as a weary Bridge of Sighs, "A palace and a prison on each hand;" But I have left my youth's bright palaces, And passed the portals of Love's fairy-land, And entered on that dark and dreary path Which every earth-born traveller must tread, Wherein the soul foredoomed no solace hath, No refuge from its anguish or its dread, But in that frowning prison-house, the grave, Regret, remorse, for time misspent and gone. Jailers, whose cruelty I dare not brave, Walk at my side and goad me sternly on, While through the arches moan continually The dull deep breakers of life's surging sea!