Deep Grief

Days, weeks, and months have gone, O Lord!
They seemed both long and brief;
Yet darker still the darkness grows,
And deeper lies the grief.

They spoke of sorrow's laws and ways,
They said what time would do;
Wise-sounding words! yet have they been
Most bitterly untrue.

O sorrow! t is thy law to feed
On what should be relief;
O time! of all things surely thou
Art cruelest to grief.

They tell me I am better now
That tears have passed away:
Alas! those earlier clays of tears
Were sunshine to to-day.

The mind was less afraid of self,
When sorrow's thoughts grew rank \
The sights and sounds of recent grief
Were better than this blank.

Old grief is worse than new; its pain
Is deeper in the heart;
The dull blind ache is worse to bear
Than blow, or wound, or smart.

Deeper and deeper in my soul
The weight of grief is stealing.
And, strange to say, I feel it more
When it has sunk past feeling.

O grief! when thou wert fresh and sharp.
Part of life felt thy blow;
But, grown the habit of my heart,
Thou art my whole life now.

Most sovereign when least sensible,
Most seen when out of sight,
Thou art the custom of the day,
And the haunting of the night.

Oh that they would not comfort me!
Deep grief cannot be reached;
Wisdom, to cure a broken heart,
Must not be wisdom preached.

Deep grief is better let alone;
Voices to it are swords;
A silent look will soothe it more
Than the tenderness of words.

Oh speak not! I will do my work,
Nay, more work than my share;
For to feel that it is idle grief
Is what deep grief cannot bear.

Deep grief is not a past event,
It is a life, a state,
Which habit makes more terrible,
And age more desolate.

But am I comfortless? Oh no!
Jesus this pathway trod;
And deeper in my soul than grief
Art Thou, my dearest God!

Good is that darkening of our lives,
Which only God can brighten:
But better still that hopeless load,
Which none but God can lighten.