I have been lonely all my days on earth, <br />Living a life within my secret soul, <br />With mine own springs of sorrow and of mirth, <br />Beyond the world's control. <br /> <br />Though sometimes with vain longing I have sought <br />To walk the paths where other mortals tread, <br />To wear the clothes for other mortals wrought, <br />And eat the selfsame bread - <br /> <br />Yet have I ever found, when thus I strove <br />To mould my life upon the common plan, <br />That I was furthest from all truth and love, <br />And least a living man. <br /> <br />Truth frowned upon my poor hypocrisy, <br />Life left my soul, and dwelt but in my sense; <br />No man could love me, for all men could see <br />The hollow vain pretence. <br /> <br />Their clothes sat on me with outlandish air, <br />Upon their easy road I tripped and fell, <br />And still I sickened of the wholesome fare <br />On which they nourished well. <br /> <br />I was a stranger in that company, <br />A Galilean whom his speech bewrayed, <br />And when they lifted up their songs of glee, <br />My voice sad discord made. <br /> <br />Peace for mine own self I could never find, <br />And still my presence marred the general peace, <br />And when I parted, leaving them behind, <br />They felt, and I, release. <br /> <br />So will I follow now my spirit's bent, <br />Not scorning those who walk the beaten track, <br />Yet not despising mine own banishment, <br />Nor often looking back. <br /> <br />Their way is best for them, but mine for me. <br />And there is comfort for my lonely heart, <br />To think perhaps our journeys' ends may be <br />Not very far apart.<br /><br />Robert Fuller Murray<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-solitary-2/
