What bitter sorrow courses down
Yon mourners faded cheek?
Those scalding drops betray a grief
Within, too full to speak.
Outspoken words cannot express
The pangs, the pains of years;
Theyre neer so deep or eloquent
As are those silent tears.
Here is a wound that in the breast
Must canker, hidn from sight;
Though all without seems sunny day,
Within Tis ever night.
Yet sometimes from this secret source
The gloomy truth appears;
The winds dark dungeon must have vent
If but in silent tears.
The world may deem from outward looks
That heart is hard and cold;
But oh! could they the mantle lift
What sorrows would be told!
Then, only then, the truth would show
Which most the bosom sears:
The pain portrayed by burning words
Or that bysilent tears.
