Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:No god, no demon of severe response,Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell.Then to my human heart I turn at once -Heart! thou and I are here sad and alone;Say, wherefore did I laugh? O mortal pain!O darkness! darkness! ever must I moan,To question heaven and hell and heart in vain!Why did I laugh? I know this being's lease -My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads:Yet could I on this very midnight cease,And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds.Verse, fame, and beauty are intense indeed,But death intenser - death is life's high meed.
Why did I laugh tonight?
Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:No god, no demon of severe response,Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell.Then to my human heart I turn at once -Heart! thou and I are here sad and alone;Say, wherefore did I laugh? O mortal pain!O darkness! darkness! ever must I moan,To question heaven and hell and heart in vain!Why did I laugh? I know this being's lease -My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads:Yet could I on this very midnight cease,And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds.Verse, fame, and beauty are intense indeed,But death intenser - death is life's high meed.