I Have Lived and I Have Loved, by Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay

I Have Lived and I Have Loved

I have lived and I have loved;

I have waked and I have slept;

I have sung and I have danced;

I have smiled and I have wept;

I have won and wasted treasure;

I have had my fill of pleasure;

And all these things were weariness,

And some of them were dreariness;—

And all these things, but two things,

Were emptiness and pain:

And Love—it was the best of them;

And Sleep—worth all the rest of them,

Worth everything but Love to my spirit and my brain.

But still my friend, O Slumber,

Till my days complete their number,

For Love shall never, never return to me again!

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Charles Mackay

I Have Lived and I Have Loved

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