I measure every grief I meet With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine, Or has an easier size.
I wonder if they bore it long, Or did it just begin?
I could not tell the date of mine, It feels so old a pain.
I wonder if it hurts to live, And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between, They would not rather die.
I wonder if when years have piled— Some thousands—on the
Of early hurt, if such a lapse Could give them any pause;
Or would they go on aching still Through centuries above,
Enlightened to a larger pain By contrast with the love.
The grieved are many,
I am told; The reason deeper lies,—Death is but one and comes but once And only nails the eyes.
There's grief of want, and grief of cold,— A sort they call 'despair,'There's banishment from native eyes, In sight of native air.
And though I may not guess the kind Correctly yet to meA piercing comfort it affords In passing Calvary,
To note the fashions of the cross Of those that stand
Still fascinated to presume That some are like my own.
