Poems (Blake)/Singing and Sighing

by Mary Elizabeth Blake

SINGING AND SIGHING.

    When my heart was singing
     All the world sang too,
    Merry laughed the greenwood,
     And the skies were blue;
In and out, round about, through the tasseled corn,
Golden bees, on the breeze, flew to chase the morn,
    And adown the hill-side,
     Through the rocky glen,
    Every rippling streamlet
     Danced and laughed again,
      When my heart was singing.

    When my heart was sighing
     All the world was gray,
    Cloud and moaning breezes
     Hid the light away;
Gaunt and bare, through the air, rose the barren hill,
Loud and clear, rising near, piped the locust shrill,
    And the gloom without us
     Seemed to find a rest
    In the gathering shadows
     Hidden in my breast,
      When my heart was sighing.

    Between song and sighing
     Not a day had flown,
    Not a change had fallen
     Save on me alone;
Shade or light, dark or bright, from my spirit still
Came the bloom, came the gloom, painting good or ill;
    So through all the seasons,
     Every day departs,
    Painted with the changes
     Of our changing hearts,
      Sighing thus, or singing.