1816
                  WHY DID I LAUGH TO-NIGHT? NO VOICE WILL TELL
                                 by John Keats

        Why did I laugh to-night? 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;
          I say, why 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 would 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.

                        THE END
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