Why did I laugh tonight?
No voice will tell
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven
or from Hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once:
Heart!
Thou and I are here sad and alone;
I say, why did I laugh?
O mortal pain!
O Darkness!
Darkness! ever must I moan,
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
Why did I laugh?
I know this Being's lease,
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
And all the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds;
Verse, Fame,
and Beauty are intense indeed,
But Death intenser
-- Death is Life's high meed.