Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885)

O JOY, hast thou a shape?

Hast thou a breath?

How fillest thou the soundless air?

Tell me the pillars of thy house!

What rest they on? Do they escape

The victory of Death?

And are they fair

Eternally, who enter in thy house?

O Joy, thou viewless spirit, canst thou dare

To tell the pillars of thy house?

On adamant of pain

Before the earth

Was born of sea, before the sea,

Yea, and before the light, my house

Was built. None know what loss, what gain,

Attends each travail birth.

No soul could be

At peace when it had entered in my house,

If the foundations it could touch or see,

Which stay the pillars of my house!