[ { "title": "Sorrow", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "SORROW, on wing through the world for ever,", "Here and there for awhile would borrow", "Rest, if rest might haply deliver", "Sorrow.", "", "One thought lies close in her heart gnawn thorough", "With pain, a weed in a dried-up river,", "A rust-red share in an empty furrow.", "", "Hearts that strain at her chain would sever", "The link where yesterday frets to-morrow:", "All things pass in the world, but never", "Sorrow." ], "linecount": "11" }, { "title": "Only God -- detect the Sorrow --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Only God -- detect the Sorrow --", "Only God --", "The Jehovahs -- are no Babblers --", "Unto God --", "God the Son -- Confide it --", "Still secure --", "God the Spirit's Honor --", "Just as sure --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Lays of Sorrow", "author": "Lewis Carroll", "lines": [ "The day was wet, the rain fell souse", "Like jars of strawberry jam, [1] a", "sound was heard in the old henhouse,", "A beating of a hammer.", "Of stalwart form, and visage warm,", "Two youths were seen within it,", "Splitting up an old tree into perches for their poultry", "At a hundred strokes [2] a minute.", "The work is done, the hen has taken", "Possession of her nest and eggs,", "Without a thought of eggs and bacon, [3]", "(Or I am very much mistaken happy)", "She turns over each shell,", "To be sure that all's well,", "Looks into the straw", "To see there's no flaw,", "Goes once round the house, [4]", "Half afraid of a mouse,", "Then sinks calmly to rest", "On the top of her nest,", "First doubling up each of her legs.", "Time rolled away, and so did every shell,", "\"Small by degrees and beautifully less,\"", "As the large mother with a powerful spell [5]", "Forced each in turn its contents to express, [6]", "But ah! \"imperfect is expression,\"", "Some poet said, I don't care who,", "If you want to know you must go elsewhere,", "One fact I can tell, if you're willing to hear,", "He never attended a Parliament Session,", "For I'm certain that if he had ever been there,", "Full quickly would he have changed his ideas,", "With the hissings, the hootings, the groans and the cheers.", "And as to his name it is pretty clear", "That it wasn't me and it wasn't you!", "", "And so it fell upon a day,", "(That is, it never rose again)", "A chick was found upon the hay,", "Its little life had ebbed away.", "No longer frolicsome and gay,", "No longer could it run or play.", "\"And must we, chicken, must we part?\"", "Its master [7] cried with bursting heart,", "And voice of agony and pain.", "So one, whose ticket's marked \"Return\", [8]", "When to the lonely roadside station", "He flies in fear and perturbation,", "Thinks of his home--the hissing urn--", "Then runs with flying hat and hair,", "And, entering, finds to his despair", "He's missed the very last train. [9]", "", "Too long it were to tell of each conjecture", "Of chicken suicide, and poultry victim,", "The deadly frown, the stern and dreary lecture,", "The timid guess, \"perhaps some needle pricked him!\"", "The din of voice, the words both loud and many,", "The sob, the tear, the sigh that none could smother,", "Till all agreed \"a shilling to a penny", "It killed itself, and we acquit the mother!\"", "Scarce was the verdict spoken,", "When that still calm was broken,", "A childish form hath burst into the throng;", "With tears and looks of sadness,", "That bring no news of gladness,", "But tell too surely something hath gone wrong!", "\"The sight I have come upon", "The stoutest heart [10] would sicken,", "That nasty hen has been and gone", "And killed another chicken!\"" ], "linecount": "69" }, { "title": "In Memoriam A. H. H. Obiit MDCCCXXXIII: 3. O Sorrow, cruel", "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson", "lines": [ "O Sorrow, cruel fellowship,", "O Priestess in the vaults of Death,", "O sweet and bitter in a breath,", "What whispers from thy lying lip?", "\"The stars,\" she whispers, \"blindly run;", "A web is wov'n across the sky;", "From out waste places comes a cry,", "And murmurs from the dying sun:", "\"And all the phantom, Nature, stands--", "With all the music in her tone,", "A hollow echo of my own,--", "A hollow form with empty hands.\"", "", "And shall I take a thing so blind,", "Embrace her as my natural good;", "Or crush her, like a vice of blood,", "Upon the threshold of the mind?" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "In Memoriam 3: O Sorrow, Cruel Fellowship", "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson", "lines": [ "O Sorrow, cruel fellowship,", "O Priestess in the vaults of Death,", "O sweet and bitter in a breath,", "What whispers from thy lying lip?", "", "\"The stars,\" she whispers, \"blindly run;", "A web is wov'n across the sky;", "From out waste places comes a cry,", "And murmurs from the dying sun:", "", "\"And all the phantom, Nature, stands--", "With all the music in her tone,", "A hollow echo of my own,--", "A hollow form with empty hands.\"", "", "And shall I take a thing so blind,", "Embrace her as my natural good;", "Or crush her, like a vice of blood,", "Upon the threshold of the mind?" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Though the Last Glimpse of Erin With Sorrow I See", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "Though the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow I see,", "Yet wherever thou art shall seem Erin to me;", "In exile thy bosom shall still be my home,", "And thine eyes make my climate wherever we roam.", "", "To the gloom of some desert or cold rocky shore,", "Where the eye of the stranger can haunt us no more,", "I will fly with my Coulin, and think the rough wind", "Less rude than the foes we leave frowning behind.", "", "And I'll gaze on thy gold hair as graceful it wreathes,", "And hang o'er thy soft harp, as wildly it breathes;", "Nor dread that the cold-hearted Saxon will tear", "One chord from that harp, or one lock from that hair." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Has Sorrow Thy Young Days Shaded", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "Has sorrow thy young days shaded,", "As clouds o'er the morning fleet?", "Too fast have those young days faded", "That, even in sorrow, were sweet?", "Does Time with his cold wing wither", "Each feeling that once was dear? --", "Then, child of misfortune, come hither,", "I'll weep with thee, tear for tear.", "", "Has love to that soul, so tender,", "Been like our Lagenian mine,", "Where sparkles of golden splendour", "All over the surface shine --", "But, if in pursuit we go deeper,", "Allured by the gleam that shone,", "Ah! false as the dream of the sleeper,", "Like Love, the bright ore is gone.", "", "Has Hope, like the bird in the story,", "That flitted from tree to tree", "With the talisman's glittering glory --", "Has Hope been that bird to thee?", "On branch after branch alighting,", "The gem did she still display,", "And, when nearest, and most inviting,", "Then waft the fair gem away?", "", "If thus the young hours have fleeted,", "When sorrow itself look'd bright;", "If thus the fair hope hath cheated,", "That led thee along so light;", "If thus the cold world now wither", "Each feeling that once was dear --", "Come, child of misfortune, come hither,", "I'll weep with thee, tear for tear." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "The Sorrows of the Blind", "author": "William Topaz McGonagall", "lines": [ "Pity the sorrows of the poor blind,", "For they can but little comfort find;", "As they walk along the street,", "They know not where to put their feet.", "They are deprived of that earthly joy", "Of seeing either man, woman, or boy;", "Sad and lonely through the world they go,", "Not knowing a friend from a foe:", "Nor the difference betwixt day and night,", "For the want of their eyesight;", "The blind mother cannot see her darling boy,", "That was once her soul's joy.", "By day and night,", "Since she lost her precious sight;", "To her the world seems dark and drear,", "And she can find no comfort here.", "She once found pleasure in reading books,", "But now pale and careworn are her looks.", "Since she has lost her eyesight,", "Everything seems wrong and nothing right.", "", "The face of nature, with all its beauties and livery green,", "Appears to the blind just like a dream.", "All things beautiful have vanished from their sight,", "Which were once their heart's delight.", "The blind father cannot see his beautiful child, nor wife,", "That was once the joy of his life;", "That he was wont to see at morn and night,", "When he had his eyesight.", "All comfort has vanished from him now,", "And a dejected look hangs on his brow.", "", "Kind Christians all, both great and small,", "Pity the sorrows of the blind,", "They can but little comfort find;", "Therefore we ought to be content with our lot,", "And for the eyesight we have got,", "And pray to God both day and night", "To preserve our eyesight;", "To be always willing to help the blind in their distress,", "And the Lord will surely bless", "And guard us by night and day,", "And remember us at the judgment day." ], "linecount": "41" }, { "title": "On Another's Sorrow", "author": "William Blake", "lines": [ "Can I see another's woe,", "And not be in sorrow too?", "Can I see another's grief,", "And not seek for kind relief?", "", "Can I see a falling tear,", "And not feel my sorrow's share?", "Can a father see his child", "Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?", "", "Can a mother sit and hear", "An infant groan, an infant fear?", "No, no! never can it be!", "Never, never can it be!", "", "And can He who smiles on all", "Hear the wren with sorrows small,", "Hear the small bird's grief and care,", "Hear the woes that infants bear--", "", "And not sit beside the next,", "Pouring pity in their breast,", "And not sit the cradle near,", "Weeping tear on infant's tear?", "", "And not sit both night and day,", "Wiping all our tears away?", "Oh no! never can it be!", "Never, never can it be!", "", "He doth give his joy to all:", "He becomes an infant small,", "He becomes a man of woe,", "He doth feel the sorrow too.", "", "Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,", "And thy Maker is not by:", "Think not thou canst weep a tear,", "And thy Maker is not near.", "", "Oh He gives to us his joy,", "That our grief He may destroy:", "Till our grief is fled an gone", "He doth sit by us and moan." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "Infant Sorrow", "author": "William Blake", "lines": [ "My mother groaned, my father wept:", "Into the dangerous world I leapt,", "Helpless, naked, piping loud,", "Like a fiend hid in a cloud.", "", "Struggling in my father's hands,", "Striving against my swaddling-bands,", "Bound and weary, I thought best", "To sulk upon my mother's breast." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Sorrow", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "To me this world's a dreary blank,", "All hopes in life are gone and fled,", "My high strung energies are sank,", "And all my blissful hopes lie dead.--", "", "The world once smiling to my view,", "Showed scenes of endless bliss and joy;", "The world I then but little knew,", "Ah! little knew how pleasures cloy;", "", "All then was jocund, all was gay,", "No thought beyond the present hour,", "I danced in pleasure's fading ray,", "Fading alas! as drooping flower.", "", "Nor do the heedless in the throng,", "One thought beyond the morrow give[,]", "They court the feast, the dance, the song,", "Nor think how short their time to live.", "", "The heart that bears deep sorrow's trace,", "What earthly comfort can console,", "It drags a dull and lengthened pace,", "'Till friendly death its woes enroll.--", "", "The sunken cheek, the humid eyes,", "E'en better than the tongue can tell;", "In whose sad breast deep sorrow lies,", "Where memory's rankling traces dwell.--", "", "The rising tear, the stifled sigh,", "A mind but ill at ease display,", "Like blackening clouds in stormy sky,", "Where fiercely vivid lightnings play.", "", "Thus when souls' energy is dead,", "When sorrow dims each earthly view,", "When every fairy hope is fled,", "We bid ungrateful world adieu." ], "linecount": "32" } ]