Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.

Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.

I am as one who is left alone at a banquet, the lights dead and
the flowers faded.

I am as one who is left alone at a banquet, the lights dead and
the flowers faded.

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of read more

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings: climb with me the steep,--
Nature's observatory--whence the dell,
In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell.

Among them, but not of them.

Among them, but not of them.

So vain is the belief
That the sequestered path has fewest flowers.

So vain is the belief
That the sequestered path has fewest flowers.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit,
But God to man doth speak in solitude.

Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit,
But God to man doth speak in solitude.

I praise the Frenchman; his remark was shrewd,--
"How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude."
But grant read more

I praise the Frenchman; his remark was shrewd,--
"How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude."
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper--Solitude is sweet.