Why did I laugh to-night?No voice will tell
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell
Then to my human heart I turn at once:
Heart!Thou and I are here sad and alone;
I say, why did I laugh?O mortal pain!
O Darkness!Darkness! ever must I moan,
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
Why did I laugh?I know this Being’s lease,
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
And all the world’s gaudy ensigns see in shreds;
Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed,
But Death intenser — Death is Life’s high meed.
***
More poems by John Keats
