Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918.

65. Alone

I’VE listened: and all the sounds I heard

Were music,—wind, and stream, and bird.

With youth who sang from hill to hill

I’ve listened: my heart is hungry still.

I’ve looked: the morning world was green;

Bright roofs and towers of town I’ve seen;

And stars, wheeling through wingless night.

I’ve looked: and my soul yet longs for light.

I’ve thought: but in my sense survives

Only the impulse of those lives

That were my making. Hear me say

‘I’ve thought!’—and darkness hides my day.