I have experienc'd
The worst, the World
can wreck on me--the worst
That can make Life
indifferent, yet disturb
With whisper'd Discontents
the dying prayer--
I have beheld the whole
of all, wherein
My Heart had any interest
in this Life,
To be disrent and torn
from off my Hopes
That nothing now is
left. Why live on?
That Hostage, which
the world had in its keeping
Given by me as a Pledge
that I would live--
That Hope of Her, say
rather , that pure Faith
In her fix'd Love,
which held me to keep truce
With the Tyranny of
Life--is gone ah! whither?
What boots it to reply?
'tis gone! and now
Well may I break this
Pact, this League of Blood
That ties me to myself--and
break I shall!
