| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. Her Secret Grief | | By Frederick Tennyson (1807–1898) |
| | | “O, SURE,” some said, “to her kind Heaven hath dealt | |
| Freedom from earthly penance, that can share | |
| The common ills of others, and their care | |
| Surely so free a heart hath never felt | |
| The fetters of great sorrows, that can melt | 5 |
| With simple tears, and laugh with simple joys.” | |
| Alas! they had not heard the hidden sighs | |
| Folded within thy conscience, pure of guilt: | |
| There was another’s heart that answered thee; | |
| He grew beside thee, till your hopes were one; | 10 |
| Far off he sleeps, afar beyond the sea; | |
| And thou hast vowed through Death’s great gates alone | |
| To pass into thy bridal, and to lay | |
| His image near thee on thy dying day. | | | | |
|
|
