Read "In Vain" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The artist looks down on his canvass, / And smothers a heart-weary sigh, / And he sees not the beautiful picture / That glows with the hues of the sky. / For a picture that cannot be painted / Burns into the artist's brain, / And he weeps as he sits at his easel, / And sobs through his sorrow, "In vain."
The poet reads over his poem, / The thoughts of a Heaven-lent soul -- / And sweet as the ripple of waters / The beautiful sentences roll. / But a poem that cannot be written, / Burns into the poet's brain, / And he weeps in a passion of anguish, / And sobs through his sorrow, "In vain."