Poems (Edwards)/What It is to be Alone
WHAT IT IS TO BE ALONE.
When is the heart alone? Alone on life's dark sea,Whet? do we live apart From all things, when do weFeel separate from all below,Lone birds upon a desert shore?
Not in the dim old woods Where sparkling waters meet,Not where the blossoms spring So sweet around our feet,Not where the songs of birds Make vocal all the air,Not where the zephyrs float, Not there, O no, not there;—Earth has a deeper solitudeThan reigns in sky, or sea, or wood.
It is, to look on eyes That answer not to ours,It is to walk unloved In life's thick peopl'd bowers,To meet a thousand smiles, And list to many a tone,And yet to feel there is no heart That answers to our own;O! this it is to be on earth Alone, alone, alone.