THE PROEM
Reading edition
I sing and sigh and also curse, Thus only can I give expression To that which will not brook repression; I am alive, I have a voice, And so I sing and sigh and curse— All life doth sing and sigh and curse. The joy of love is in my song, I sigh for pleasures yet untasted— For things I dream—o’er moments wasted And sometimes interrupt my song With clenched fist to curse a wrong— It is a joy to curse a wrong. And so I sing and sigh and curse— All life doth sing and sigh and curse.