Waiting.
Will it be
over to-day or to-morrow ?1
Will it last for a week, or a month, or a year ;2
This trance that is neither a joy nor a sorrow,3
This waiting that is not a hope nor a
fear ?4
While I am waiting the end draws near,5
It will come before I am dead some day ;6
Shall I feel it, I wonder, when it is here ?7
Its coming seems like going away.8
Is it only that watching has made me weary,9
And that being weary has made me dream ?10
But in dreams the world is not so dreary,11
And in dreams things are not as they seem.12
And indeed I am not tired yet,13
I have strength to wait what is yet to see,14
What the hours I know will not forget,15
The end of the watch that is set for me.16
Is it the end that has made me strong,17
Lest I say when it comes it is come too late ?18
Then till it came I should find it long :19
I have forgotten for what I wait.20
Then why are my thoughts bound up to this21
By a bond that I neither feel nor see,22
While the world goes by in bale or bliss ?23
Do I think the world keeps watch with me ?24
Yet the end will come, and the end will go,25
And leave no trace in the empty air ;26
When it is over none will know,27
And I hardly think that I shall care.28