To Solitude, by Alice Cary

To Solitude
Alice Cary

I am weary of the working,
Weary of the long day’s heat;
To thy comfortable bosom,
Wilt thou take me, spirit sweet?

Weary of the long, blind struggle
For a pathway bright and high,—
Weary of the dimly dying
Hopes that never quite all die.

Weary searching a bad cipher
For a good that must be meant;
Discontent with being weary,—
Weary with my discontent.

I am weary of the trusting
Where my trusts but torments prove;
Wilt thou keep faith with me? wilt thou
Be my true and tender love?

I am weary drifting, driving
Like a helmless bark at sea;
Kindly, comfortable spirit,
Wilt thou give thyself to me?

Give thy birds to sing me sonnets?
Give thy winds my cheeks to kiss?
And thy mossy rocks to stand for
The memorials of our bliss?

I in reverence will hold thee,
Never vexed with jealous ills,
Though thy wild and wimpling waters
Wind about a thousand hills.

Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (The Library of America, 1993)
(link)

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Vocabulary:

weary of: bored with something because you have experienced too much of it.
bosom: the front of a person's chest, especially when thought of as the centre of human feelings.
dimly: not likely to succeed.
cipher: a system of writing that prevents most people from understanding the message; a code.
drift: to move slowly, especially as a result of outside forces, with no control over direction.
bark: the hard outer covering of a tree.
moss: a very small green or yellow plant that grows especially in wet earth or on rocks, walls and tree trunks.
vexed: difficult to deal with and causing a lot of disagreement and argument.
wimple: to cause to ripple.