[BNP/E3, 49A2 – 34]

5/8/09

My days are sunless, as if winter were

The only norm in my changeless year;

My days are blank as if a desert drear

Gave me to my sight[1] a limitless despair;

_______

Each day, each hour, seems less good and less fair

And the end of all this seems e’er less near,

Yet though death seems so far, yet {…} fear

From error in desire to wish it e’er

_______

Nearer. My days all are changelessly worse

And I am borne by them whither they go

Carelessly a slave to care and fear and woe

And an illness hinds me, a curse,

Over

Which, seeing to my heart so near and small,

Would make me smile, if I could smile at all.

_______

[34v]

I neither smile nor dim at † or dirt

{…} by the harsh mind’s tormenting flirt

{…} and men’s eyes

Men are construction are fraternity

And natural blindness of their hearts to me

_______

5/8/09

October 1908

 
[1] my sight /mine eyes\