Classic Poem

Darkness was overtraced on every face;
Around clouded with storm and ominous gloom;
In hut or hall there was no resting-place;
There was no resting-place but one—the tomb!

All our hearts were the mansions of distress,
And no one laughed, and none seemed free from care;
Our children felt their fathers' wretchedness;
Our homes, one, all were shadowed with despair.

It was not fear that made the land so sad. . . .