'Tis a world of silences. I gave a cry
In the first sorrow my heart could not withstand; 
I saw men pause, and listen, and look sad, 
As though an answer in their hearts they had;
Some turned away, some came and took my hand, 
For all reply.

I stood beside a grave. Years had passed by; 
Sick with unanswered life I turned to death, 
And whispered all my question to the grave, 
And watched the flowers desolately wave, 
And grass stir on it with a fitful breath, 
For all reply.

I raised my eyes to heaven; my prayer went high 
Into the luminous mystery of the blue; 
My thought of God was purer than a flame 
And God it seemed a little nearer came, 
Then passed; and greater still the silence grew, 
For all reply.

But you! If I can speak before I die, 
I spoke to you with all my soul, and when 
I look at you 'tis still my soul you see. 
Oh, in your heart was there no word for me? 
All would have answered had you answered then 
With even a sigh.

All alone in the world! all alone!
With a child on my knee, or a wife on my breast,
Or, sitting beside me, the beautiful guest
Whom my heart leaps to greet as its sweetest and best;
Still alone in the world! all alone!

With my visions of beauty, alone!
Too fair to be painted, too fleet to be scanned,
Too regal to stay at my feeble command,
They pass from the grasp of my impotent hand:
Still alone in the world! all alone!

Alone with my conscience, alone!
Not an eye that can see when its finger of flame
Points my soul to its sin, or consumes it with shame!
Not an ear that can hear its low whisper of blame!
Still alone in the world! all alone!

In my visions of self, all alone!
The weakness, the meanness, the guilt that I see,
The fool or the fiend I am tempted to be,
Can only be seen and repented by me:
Still alone in the world! all alone!

Alone in my worship, alone!
No hand in the universe joining with mine,
Can lift what it lays on the altar divine,
Or bear what it offers aloft to its shrine:
Still alone in the world! all alone!

In the valley of death all alone!
The sighs and the tears of my friends are in vain,
For mine is the passage, and mine is the pain,
And mine the sad sinking of bosom and brain:
Still alone in the world! all alone!

Not alone! never, never alone!
There is one who is with me by day and by night,
Who sees and inspires all my visions of light,
And teaches my conscience its office aright:
Not alone in the world! not alone!

Not alone! never, never alone!
He sees all my weakness with pitying eyes,
He helps me to lift my faint heart to the skies,
And in my last passion he suffers and dies:
Not alone! never, never alone!