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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SOLITUDE by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: THOU WAST TO ME WHAT TO THE CHANGING YEAR
Last Line: STANDS CHARNELLING A SOUL'S FUNEREAL SIGHS.
Subject(s): SOLITUDE; LONELINESS;

THOU wast to me what to the changing year
Its seasons are, -- a joy forever new;
What to the night its stars, its heavenly dew,
Its silence; what to dawn its lark-song clear;
To noon, its light -- its fleckless atmosphere,
Where ocean and the overbending blue,
In passionate communion, hue for hue,
As one in Love's circumference appear.

O brimming heart, with tears for utterance
Alike of joy and sorrow! lift thine eyes
And sphere the desolation. Love is flown;
And in the desert's widening expanse
Grim Silence, like a sepulchre of stone,
Stands charnelling a soul's funereal sighs.



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