Alone!--That worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing, and grief read more

Alone!--That worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,
Of hope laid waste, knells in that word--Alone!

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.

In solitude, where we are least alone.

In solitude, where we are least alone.

This is to be along; this, this is solitude!

This is to be along; this, this is solitude!

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of read more

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

There is a society in the deepest solitude.

There is a society in the deepest solitude.

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.

Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove,
Far from the clamorous world; doth live his own;
read more

Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove,
Far from the clamorous world; doth live his own;
Though solitary, who is not alone,
But doth converse with that eternal love.