Wandering aimlessly everywhere,

Upstairs and downstairs, from room into room,

Searching for nothing—for nothing is there,

Only the changeless impregnable gloom.

Stifled within, the cool gardens I seek;—

Like poor human souls the flowers all die;

Even the birds are refusing to speak,

Crush'd by the weight of a leaden-gray sky.

Is this the whole of it? is this the end?

Life finish'd off by a heartless Amen?