Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By John Keble (1792–1866)

Loneliness


WHY should we faint and fear to live alone,
Since all alone, so Heav’n has willed, we die;
Not e’en the tenderest heart, and next our own,
Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh.

Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe,	5
Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart;
Our eyes see all around in gloom or glow,
Hues of their own, fresh borrow’d from the heart.