Classic Poem

First printed in the Athenaeum , September 17, 1842, as " A Claim on Allegory."

I

Grief sate upon a rock and sighed one day,
(Sighing is all her rest,)
" Wellaway, wellaway, ah wellaway!"
As ocean beat the stone, did she her breast,
" Ah wellaway! ah me! alas, ah me!"
Such sighing uttered she.

II

A Cloud spake out of heaven, as soft as rain
That falls on water, — " Lo,
The winds have wandered from me! I remain
Alone in the sky-waste, and cannot go
To lean my whiteness on the mountain blue
Till wanted for more dew.

III

" The sun has struck my brain to weary peace,
Whereby constrained and pale
I spin for him a larger golden fleece
Than Jason's, yearning for as full a sail.
Sweet Grief, when thou hast sighed to thy mind,
Give me a sigh for wind,

IV

" And let it carry me adown the west!"
But Love, who prostrated
Lay at Grief's foot, his lifted eyes possessed
Of her full image, answered in her stead;
" Now nay, now nay! she shall not give away
What is my wealth, for any Cloud that flieth:
Where Grief makes moan,
Love claims his own,
And therefore do I lie here night and day,
And eke my life out with the breath she sigheth."