Poems (Victor)/Ah Me

by Frances Fuller Victor

For works with similar titles, see Ah Me!.

AH ME!

I say to my heart, "Be still!

Beat not against my breast

With all this fierce unrest;

I am ill, I am ill,—

Fainting, sinking in the fire

Of a passionate desire

That consumes my thought and will."

I say to my soul, "In vain

You beat your restless wings

'Gainst the cruel bars of things

That imprison and restrain;

Turn your eyes away, be strong,

Captive shall you be not long,

But your prisen rent in twain."

That life should be, ah me!

Longing, and never joy;

Paltry pleasures that cloy,

And writhings to be free;

Faintings, cryings to the sky,

"My God, O let me die,"

When it should sweetest be.

Ah me!