What meaneth this? When I lie alone, I toss, I turn, I sigh, I groan; My bed me seems as hard as stone. What meaneth this? I sigh, I plain continually; The clothes that on my bed do lie Always methinks they lie awry: What meaneth this? In slumbers oft for fear I quake; For heat and cold I burn and shake; For lack of sleep my head doth ache: What meaneth this? A mornings then when I do rise I turn unto my wonted guise; All day after muse and devise What meaneth this? And if perchance by me there pass She unto whom I sue for grace, The cold blood forsaketh my face: What meaneth this? But if I sit near her by, With loud voice my heart doth cry, And yet my mouth is dumb and dry. What meaneth this? To ask for help no heart I have, My tongue doth fail what I should crave, Yet inwardly I rage and rave: What meaneth this? Thus have I passed many a year And many a day, though naught appear; But most of that that most I fear: What meaneth this? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DAT GAL O' MINE by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON FRAGMENT by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MONADNOCK IN EARLY SPRING by AMY LOWELL TO HELEN KELLER - HUMANITARIAN, SOCIAL DEMOCRAT, GREAT SOUL by EDWIN MARKHAM THE NEW APOCRYPHA: BUSINESS REVERSES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |