Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Song 17
Literary Gazette, 25th December, 1824, Pages 825-826
My heart is filled with bitter thoughts,
My eyes with bitter tears;
I have been thinking on the past,
And upon future years.
Years past—how sad they all have been,
And how long too they seem!
And years that are as yet to come,
Of them I dare not dream.
The past is as a battle-field,
Where many a hope lies dead,
Haunted by ghosts of pleasures past,
And feelings long since fled.
The future is a desert waste,
Unknown, and dark and drear,
Where my thoughts know not what they dread,
They only know they fear.
Are there not stars whose evil light
Is given but for ill?
One such is mine—go where I may,
That star shines o'er me still!
L. E. L.