Poem by Thomas Hood

Stanzas (Is there a bitter pang for love removed)

Is there a bitter pang for love removed,
  O God! The dead love doth not cost more tears
Than the alive, the loving, the beloved--
  Not yet, not yet beyond all hopes and fears!
        Would I were laid
        Under the shade
Of the calm grave, and the long grass of years,--

That love might die with sorrow:--I am sorrow;
  And she, that loves me tenderest, doth press
Most poison from my cruel lips, and borrow
  Only new anguish from the old caress;
         Oh, this world's grief
         Hath no relief

In being wrung from a great happiness.
Would I had never filled thine eyes with love,
  For love is only tears: would I had never
Breathed such a curse-like blessing as we prove;
  Now, if "Farewell" _could_ bless thee, I would sever!
         Would I were laid
         Under the shade
Of the cold tomb, and the long grass forever!

1. Written in Keats' “Endymion”
2. The Two Peacocks of Bedfont
3. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Clapham Academy
4. Song (The stars are with the voyager)
5. The Two Swans

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