Explore "The Cross" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The cross I bear no man shall know -- / No man can ease the cross I bear! -- / Alas! the thorny path of woe / Up the steep hill of care!
There is no word to comfort me; / No sign to help my bended head; / Deep night lies over land and sea, / And silence dark and dread.
To strive, it seems, that I was born, / For that which others shall obtain; / The disappointment and the scorn / Alone for me remain.
One half my life is overpast; / The other half I contemplate -- / Meseems the past doth but forecast / A darker future state.
Sick to the heart of that which makes / Me hope and struggle and desire, / The aspiration here that aches / With ineffectual fire;
While inwardly I know the lack, / The insufficiency of power, / Each past day's retrospect makes black / Each morrow's coming hour.
Now in my youth would I could die! -- / As others love to live, -- go down / Into the grave without a sigh, / Oblivious of renown!