Like Dull Narcotics, Numbing Pain

"I sometimes hold it half a sin

         To put in words the grief I feel;

         For words, like Nature, half reveal

And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,

         A use in   measured language lies;

         The sad mechanic exercise,

Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,

         Like coarsest clothes against the cold;

         But that large grief which these enfold

Is given in outline and no more."