Despair (Coleridge)

I have experienc'd

The worst, the World can wreak on me—the worst

That can make Life indifferent, yet disturb

With whisper'd Discontents the dying prayer—

I have beheld the whole of all, wherein

My Heart had any interest in this Life,

To be disrent and torn from off my Hopes

That nothing now is left. Why then live on?

That Hostage, which the world had in it's keeping

Given by me as a Pledge that I would live—

That Hope of Her, say rather, that pure Faith

In her fix'd Love, which held me to keep truce

With the Tyranny of Life—is gone ah! whither?

What boots it to reply? 'tis gone! and now

Well may I break this Pact, this League of Blood

That ties me to myself—and break I shall!