Explore "The Undertone" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN I was very young I used to feel the dark despairs of youth; / Out of my little griefs I would invent great tragedies and woes; / Not only for myself, but for all those I held most dear / I would invent vast sorrows in my melancholy moods of thought. / Yet down deep, deep in my heart there was an undertone of rapture. / It was like a voice from some other world calling softly to me, / Saying things joyful.
As I grew older, and Life offered bitter gall for me to drink, / Forcing it through clenched teeth when I refused to take it willingly; / When Pain prepared some special anguish for my heart to bear, / And all the things I longed for seemed to be wholly beyond my reach- / Yet down deep, deep in my heart there was an undertone of rapture. / It was like a Voice, a Voice from some other world calling to me, / Bringing glad tidings.