Chopin.
What need have we to speak ? Thou hast said
all !1
High hopes that are foredoomed to a defeat,2
Struggles heroic, impotent, that meet3
Fatality of failure ; clarion-call4
Blown down a glorious Past that now doth fall5
Upon a Present’s bondage ; visions sweet6
As those the lost soul in its torments greet,7
Lighting the futile anguish of the thrall ;8
The madness of a merriment that tells9
How with the jarring laugh the hot heart swells ;10
Blood that cries loud to Heaven for vain redress,11
Wrongs that the ages pass by pitiless—12
Thou hast sung all, sobbed all ! In wild strains hurled13
The woe of the downtrodden of the world !14