Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
III. Her Secret GriefFrederick Tennyson (18071898)
“O,
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
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;
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.