When Nature Hath Betrayed the Heart That Loved Her

The gray waves rock against the gray skyline,
And break complaining on the long gray sand,
Here where I sit, who cannot understand
Their voice of pain, nor this dumb pain of mine;
For I, who thought to fare till my days end
Armed sorrow-proof in sorrow, having known
How hearts bleed slow when brave lips make no moan,
How Life can torture, how Death may befriend
When Love entreats him hasten,—even I,
Who feared no human anguish that may be,
I cannot bear the loud grief of the sea,
I cannot bear the still grief of the sky.