Pensive, at eve, on the hard world I mus’d,

[ZaunköniG]

Pensive, at eve, on the hard world I mus’d,
And my poor heart was sad : so at the moon
I gazed, and sigh'd, and sigh'd ! for ah ! how soon
Eve darkens into night ! Mine eye perus'd
With tearful vacancy the dampy grass,
Which wept and glitter'd in the paly ray ;
And I did pause me on my lonely way,
And mused me on those wretched ones, who pass
O'er the black heath of sorrow. But, alas !
Most of MYSELF I thought : when it befel
That the sooth SPIRIT of the freezy wood
Breath'd in mine ear ' Ah this is very well ;
But much of one thing is for no-thing good.'
Ah ! my poor heart's inexplicable swell !