Poems (Hazlett-Bevis)/Try Not to Feel

by Sophia Courtoulde Hazlett-Bevis

Try Not to Feel.

They sat in the gathering twilight,
 Night's candles alit in the sky,
And talked of the world and its trials,—
 The one with a tear in her eye,
The other grown older and patient,
 With scars on her heart yet to heal,
As she whispered the one who sat near her
 "You must toil on and try not to feel."

"Try not to feel!" And the woman
 Whose lines into places not fair
Had fallen, looked up, as the omen
 Fell on her ear, with despair.
"Try not to feel!" Should she crush it,
 This God-given instinct? Ah, no—
Thrust it aside, all the good and the true,
 To the level of brutes must she go?

"Try not to feel!" Indurated
 As one who like marble had grown?
While toiling for bread, all weary and worn,
 She must smile when they gave her a stone;
Smile when a curse fell upon her,
 Heed not how cruel the blows;
"Try not to feel!" It is nothing,
 And in the Hereafter,—who knows?

"Try not to feel!" Become callous
 To all of the world and its sneers,
To trample the heart, sore within us,
 And care not when taunted with jeers;
Accepting with grace, the mean portion
 So pitilessly doled out each day,
And satisfied be with the gleaning
 'Though one falter and faint by the way.

"Try not to feel!" It is easy
 To preach unto those of no heart—
But they who are climbing the mountain
 Know well how the thorns tear apart
And pierce the white feet that are pressing
 The soil, all so scorching and rough.
"Try not to feel!" Ah, the mockery,
 As well whisper winds "'tis enough."

"Try not to feel!" If each human
 A burden alone could but bear
Without inflicting another.
 What need would there be of a prayer?
"Try not to feel!" And thus calmly
 Go down to the grave without thought;
But oh, for the heart that was stifled,
 To learn just how dearly 'twas bought.