Two Sonnets

I.
" Why are your songs all wild and bitter-sad
As funeral dirges with the orphans' cries ?
Each night since first the world was made hath had
A sequent day to laugh it down the skies.
Chant us a glee to make our hearts rejoice,
Or seal in silence this unmanly moan."
My friend, I have no power to rule my voice :
A spirit lifts me where I lie alone,
And thrills me into song by its own laws ;
That which I feel, but seldom know, indeed
Tempering the melody it could not cause.
The bleeding heart cannot for ever bleed
Inwardly solely : on the wan lips too
Dark blood will bubble ghastly into view.

II.
Striving to sing glad songs, I but attain
Wild discords sadder than Grief's saddest tune ;
As if an owl with his harsh screech should strain
To over-gratulate a thrush of June.
The nightingale upon its thorny spray-
Finds inspiration in the sullen dark ;
The kindling dawn, the world-wide joyous day
Are inspiration to the soaring lark ;
The seas are silent in the sunny calm.
Their anthem-surges in the tempest boom ;
The skies outroll no solemn thunder-psalm
Till they have clothed themselves with clouds of gloom.
My mirth can laugh and talk, but cannot sing ;
My grief finds harmonies in everything.