Classic Poem

Alone I sat; the summer day
Had died in smiling light away;
I saw it die, I watched it fade
From misty hill and breezeless glade;

And thoughts in my soul were gushing,
And my heart bowed beneath their power;
And tears within my eyes were rushing
Because I could not speak the feeling,
The solemn joy around me stealing
In that divine, untroubled hour.

I asked myself, “O why has heaven
Denied the precious gift to me,
The glorious gift to many given
To speak their thoughts in poetry?

“Dreams have encircled me,” I said,
“From careless childhood's sunny time;
Visions by ardent fancy fed
Since life was in its morning prime.”

But now, when I had hoped to sing,
My fingers strike a tuneless string;
And still the burden of the strain
Is “Strive no more; 'tis all in vain.”
Manuscript D6 is a single leaf containing Nos. 27, 36, 37, and 38 on one side, and cancelled versions of Nos. 40, 62, and 16 respectively on the reverse.