Poems (Elgee, 1907)/La via dolorosa
LA VIA DOLOROSA.
WANDER here, I wander there, Through the desert of life, all wearily;No joy on earth for the pilgrim soul— On, on for ever drearily; O'er the mountain height, In the tempest night, Through the mist and the gloom, We press on to the tomb,While the death-like pall of a midnight skyHangs over past and futurity.And the echo of wandering feet I hear,And human voices and hearts are near; But lonely, lonely each one goethOn his dark path, and little knowethOf love, kind words, or sympathy.Oh! fain would I lay me down and die;For the upward glance of a tearful eye,Is all I have known of humanity.Yet must I on, tho' darker and drearer And lonelier ever the pathway seems,And the spectral shadow of death draws nearer, And rare and faint are the sun-light gleams;An unseen power impelleth us on—No pause, no rest for the weary one,Till we reach the shores of that fathomless seaWhere Time poureth down to Eternity.