I have Beheld by Gilbert Parker — Read

I have beheld a multitude stand still / In such deep silence that a sudden pain / Struck through the heart in sharing the tense strain, / And all the world seemed bounded by one will.

But when precipitated on the sea / Of human feeling was the incident / That caught their wonder; then the skies were rent / With quivering sound, with passion's liberty.

So have I stood before this parting day, / With chilly fingers pressed upon my breast, / That my heart burst not fleshen bands away,

And my sharp cry break through my lady's rest.

I have shut burning eyelids on the sight / Of this dread time that scorches my sad night.