Poems (Taggart)/Lines composed in great Suffering
LINES COMPOSED IN GREAT SUFFERING.1829.
Sad, moaning wind! thy mournful melody,Joined with the murmurs of the troubled sea,Falls on the ear disconsolate and lone,Like pitying Mercy's sympathizing tone;—Calms the wild throbbing of the rending breast,Where ever rankling tortures are compressed, And each chill tenant that inhabits thereIs grief's sad offspring, fostered by despair:—Thy fitful gusts, thy faint and dying sounds,Thy hoarse, loud roarings, and thy plaintive moans,Calm the wrecked brain, where pangs contentious dwell,All wildly striving, all triumphant still!Congenial sounds, for each unuttered pain,In thy wild, frantic murmurings complain,—Reason, confusion, madness, and despairStriving the palm of victory to bear!Convulsions direful rend each fibrous thread,Bearing keen tortures, and the aching headTraverse with vigorous and appalling might,With rage consuming and terrific fright,Laboring unwearied, watchful, firm, and strong,—Tenacious each of the aspiring throngTo gain the empire of the ruined brain,Where Happiness once held her blest domain.Thy mournful murmurs sympathize alone;But the keen tortures every charm disown.Thy wild commotion and aërial strifeTell the strange tumult of a mortal life,—When each sad night is marked with grief supreme,And every vision, every soothing dreamOf rest and quiet, has for ever fled,And prostrate hope lies blasted, cold, and dead,—Each moment big with every grief and woeThat reigns in ceaseless anguish here below.