Life isn’t always plain sailing as we all know. Illness can strike unexpectedly and lives can be turned upside down.
For those who are admitted to the hospital and face a long stay, feelings of despair and abandonment can creep in and trying to remain optimistic is hard.
All they can do is hope that their future may become brighter than the dark days they are experiencing.
The poem extract featured today is by John Keats and is about finding ourselves searching for hope and comfort, whilst facing moments of despair.
To Hope
When by my solitary hearth I sit,
And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom;
When no fair dreams before my mind's eye flit,
And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;
Sweet hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions over my head!
Whenever I wander, at the fall of night,
Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray,
Should sad despondency my musings fright,
And frown, to drive fair cheerfulness away,
Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,
And keep that fiend despondence far aloof!
John Keats 1795-1821
