Why did I Laugh tonight? 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;

Say, wherefore 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 could I on this very midnight cease,

And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds.

Verse, fame, and beauty are intense indeed,

But death intenser--death is life's high meed.