Robbie Burns Said It

"Dark despair around benights me."

But that was just a girl!  A special girl, it's true.  After a final fond kiss, he said, "we sever ... forever."

A very sad tale, but what would he make of where we are today, what with COVID and political polarization and physical isolation and remote working conditions and a lockdown of Ireland for two whole years and creeping rheumatism resistant to Relief Factor?

He might try cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, as a last resort.  Two mantras every morning.  The first -- "Thank you Lord for this new day, which is a bonus day that I did not earn and I do not deserve."  The second -- "There is no Death."  He would not feel these sentiments at first as he said them, but with time they might turn his eyes upwards and restore in small part his joie de vivre.