Oh, why is this? Oh, why have I so long

Brooded on grief, and made myself a bane

To golden fields and all the happy plain

Where once I met the Lady of my Song,

The lady for whose sake I shall be strong,

But never weak or diffident again?

V.

I was too shorn of hope. I did employ

Words like a mourner; and to Her I bow'd,

As one might kneel to Glory in its shroud.