[00:43.99]Why did I laugh tonight?
[00:46.96]No voice will tell
[00:50.11]No God, no Demon of severe response,
[00:54.06]Deigns to reply from Heaven
[00:58.46]or from Hell.
[01:02.09]Then to my human heart I turn at once:
[01:08.91]Heart!
[01:11.09]Thou and I are here sad and alone;
[01:15.92]I say, why did I laugh?
[01:22.35]O mortal pain!
[01:26.22]O Darkness!
[01:28.83]Darkness! ever must I moan,
[01:32.00]To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
[01:40.56]
[01:42.13]Why did I laugh?
[01:45.76]I know this Being's lease,
[01:48.63]My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;
[01:52.24]Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
[01:55.98]And all the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds;
[02:03.10]Verse, Fame,
[02:06.94]and Beauty are intense indeed,
[02:12.67]But Death intenser
[02:16.30]-- Death is Life's high meed.
[02:20.62]