| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | A Comparison | | By Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) |
| | | I THINK, ofttimes, that lives of men may be | |
| Likened to wandering winds that come and go, | |
| Not knowing whence they rise, whither they blow | |
| O’er the vast globe, voiceful of grief or glee. | |
| Some lives are buoyant zephyrs sporting free | 5 |
| In tropic sunshine; some, long winds of woe | |
| That shun the day, wailing with murmurs low, | |
| Through haunted twilights, by the unresting sea; | |
| Others are ruthless, stormful, drunk with might, | |
| Born with deep passion or malign desire: | 10 |
| They rave ’mid thunder-peals and clouds of fire. | |
| Wild, reckless all, save that some power unknown | |
| Guides each blind force till life be overblown, | |
| Lost in vague hollows of the fathomless night. | | | | |
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