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Poems (Edwards)/What It is to be Alone

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4687623Poems — What It is to be AloneMatilda Caroline Smiley Edwards
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 we
Feel 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 solitude
Than 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.