A Fragment
The saddest of all tragedies are those
Wherein the actors dare not speak a word;
Warm hearts are broken, but no sound is heard,
And all goes smiling to the fatal close.
And sometimes there is one who partly knows.
As I half know, how like a frightened bird,
For all your brave, gay looks, your heart is stirred.
And trembles in the midst of loving foes.
From: Pellew, George, The Poems of George Pellew, edited, with an Introduction, by W D Howells, 1892, W B Clarke & Co: Boston, p. 38.
(http://archive.org/stream/poemsgeorgepell00howegoog#page/n52/mode/2up)
Date: 1885
By: George Pellew (1859-1892)