I know you: solitary griefs,
Desolate passions, aching hours!
I know you : tremulous beliefs,
Agonised hopes, and ashen flowers!
The winds are sometimes sad to me;
The starry spaces, full of fear;
Mine is the sorrow on the sea,
And mine the sigh of places drear.
Some players upon plaintive strings
Publish their wistfulness abroad:
I have not spoken of these things,
Save to one man, and unto God.
From: Johnson, Lionel, Some Poems of Lionel Johnson, 1912, Elkin Mathews: London, p. 67.
(https://archive.org/details/somepoemsoflione00johniala/)
Date: 1893
By: Lionel Pigot Johnson (1867-1902)