| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. “I shall be faithful, though the weary years” | | By George Henry Boker (1823–1890) |
| | | I SHALL be faithful, though the weary years | |
| Spread out before me like a mountain chain | |
| Rugged and steep, ascending from the plain, | |
| Without a path; though where the cliff uprears | |
| Its sternest front, and echoes in my ears | 5 |
| My own deep sobs of solitary pain, | |
| It is my fate to scale; though all in vain | |
| I spend my labor, and my idle tears | |
| Torture but me: I know, despite my ill, | |
| That with each step a little wastes away,— | 10 |
| A little of this life wastes day by day; | |
| And far beyond the desert which I fill | |
| With my vast sorrow, I have faith to say | |
| That we shall meet; so I press onward still. | | | | |
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