Classic Poem

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.