“Moan, moan, ye dying gales”

Henry Neele (1798–1828)

MOAN, moan, ye dying gales!

The saddest of your tales

Is not so sad as life;

Nor have you e’er began

A theme so wild as man,

Or with such sorrow rife.

Fall, fall, thou withered leaf!

Autumn sears not like grief,

Nor kills such lovely flowers;

More terrible the storm,

More mournful the deform,

When dark misfortune lowers.

Hush! hush! thou trembling lyre,

Silence, ye vocal choir,

And thou, mellifluous lute,

For man soon breathes his last,

And all his hope is past,

And all his music mute.

Then, when the gale is sighing,

And when the leaves are dying,

And when the song is o’er,

O, let us think of those

Whose lives are lost in woes,

Whose cup of grief runs o’er.