"I Vex Me Not with Brooding on the Years"

The Sisters' Tragedy

by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I vex me not with brooding on the years
     
That were ere I drew breath: why should I then
   
  Distrust the darkness that may fall again
   
  When life is done? Perchance in other spheres--
Dead
planets--I once tasted mortal tears,
      And
walked as now among a throng of men,
     
Pondering things that lay beyond my ken,
     
Questioning death, and solacing my fears.
Ofttimes indeed strange
sense have I of this,
      Vague memories that
hold me with a spell,
      Touches of unseen lips
upon my brow,
Breathing some incommunicable bliss!
 
    In years foregone, O Soul, was all not well?
 
    Still lovelier life awaits thee. Fear not thou!