Sad lot, to have no Hope! Though lowly kneeling <br />He fain would frame a prayer within his breast, <br />Would fain entreat for some sweet breath of healing, <br />That his sick body might have ease and rest; <br />He strove in vain! the dull sighs from his chest <br />Against his will the stifling load revealing, <br />Though Nature forced; though like some captive guest, <br />Some royal prisoner at his conqueror's feast, <br />An alien's restless mood but half concealing, <br />The sternness on his gentle brow confessed, <br />Sickness within and miserable feeling: <br />Though obscure pangs made curses of his dreams, <br />And dreaded sleep, each night repelled in vain, <br />Each night was scattered by its own loud screams: <br />Yet never could his heart command, though fain, <br />One deep full wish to be no more in pain. <br />That Hope, which was his inward bliss and boast, <br />Which waned and died, yet ever near him stood, <br />Though changed in nature, wander where he would-- <br />For Love's Despair is but Hope's pining Ghost! <br />For this one hope he makes his hourly moan, <br />He wishes and can wish for this alone! <br />Pierced, as with light from Heaven, before its gleams <br />(So the love-stricken visionary deems) <br />Disease would vanish, like a summer shower, <br />Whose dews fling sunshine from the noon-tide bower! <br />Or let it stay! yet this one Hope should give <br />Such strength that he would bless his pains and live.<br /><br />Samuel Taylor Coleridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-visionary-hope/
