Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/476

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Ah, despair the brain would madden,
Did no flowers of promise gladden,
Even while their glories sadden,
Every wreath-encircled urn.
All the burdened air they lighten,
For in bud and bloom is written,
These in midnight gloom forgotten
To the sunlight shall return.


WE CANNOT KNOW EACH OTHER.

We cannot know each other,
Though bound by strongest ties;
And though, oft with deep meaning,
Soul to kindred soul replies.
Though we mingle in life's harvest,
And our sheaves together glean,
Yet though no discord may part us,
A great gulf is fixed between.

We cannot know each other,
Little worlds we have apart;
From the busy world around us,
Hidden deep in mind and heart.
Peopled with a thousand feelings,
Aspirations, thoughts, desires,
Unrevealed to foe or loved ones,
Yet alive with quenchless fires.

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