Explore "Despondency: an Ode" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Oppress'd with grief, oppress'd with care, / A burden more than I can bear, / I set me down and sigh; / O life! thou art a galling load, / Along a rough, a weary road, / To wretches such as I! / Dim backward as I cast my view, / What sick'ning scenes appear! / What sorrows yet may pierce me through, / Too justly I may fear! / Still caring, despairing, / Must be my bitter doom; / My woes here shall close ne'er / But with the closing tomb!
Happy! ye sons of busy life, / Who, equal to the bustling strife, / No other view regard! / Ev'n when the wished end's denied, / Yet while the busy means are plied, / They bring their own reward: / Whilst I, a hope-abandon'd wight, / Unfitted with an aim, / Meet ev'ry sad returning night, / And joyless morn the same! / You, bustling, and justling, / Forget each grief and pain; / I, listless, yet restless, / Find ev'ry prospect vain.