FRIGHTS AND FEARS

When that which once was wont my eyes

To please does now dismay

As much as that now-lost surmise

Does tease my mind away,

Then feel I with a wild release

A surge of sympathy,

And find I the astounding ease

Of generosity.

When fears, which hitherto my heart

Did pain, no more do fright;

Or darknesses from storms did start

And rain, yet now delight;

Then I give thanks to know again

What I had known before

And thought that I had sought in vain

And would find nevermore.

When sights and sounds and sentiments

Once real have lost their worth;

And when those fragile elements

Lie dust-like on the earth,

Then shall my heart no more conceal

What it would most express;

And shall I come at last to feel

That unaccustomed bliss.

Switzerland, 1962