O When and Where

[Editor’s note: Volume 2 of the Pre-Raphaelite Journal “The Germ” was published in Febuary of 1850 — to minimal acclaim. In January of 1850, 700 copies of the first volume of The Germ had been printed, and only a two hundred sold. The second volume of the Germ was printed only a month later with a run of 500, and sold even fewer. In this second volume, Thomas Woolner shows some restraint, offering only two stanzas on one of his favorite topics: death.]

All knowledge hath taught me,
All sorrow hath brought me,
Are smothered sighs
That pleasure lies,
Like the last gleam of evening’s ray,
So far and far away,—far away.

Under the cold moist herbs
No wind the calm disturbs.
O when and where?
Nor here nor there.
Grass cools my face, grief heats my heart.
Will this life I swoon with never part?