IF she unclosed her lips and made her moan She would not be so weary with her woe -- A burden shared is lightened: even so The weight is heavier that we bear alone, And anguish, pent within, turns hearts to stone. The fellowship of sorrow to forego -- To suffer and be silent -- is to know The blackest blossom from the black root grown. And yet great joys and greatest woes are dumb: Small is the sum that reckoning can compute -- The shallows babble, but the depths are mute -- The great mid-sea our measure may not plumb: King Love, King Pain, King Death, in silence come; And, meeting them, we silently salute. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES WRITTEN IN AN OVID by MATTHEW PRIOR PET'S PUNISHMENT by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY LOVE'S BLINDNESS by ALFRED AUSTIN CYNTHIA ON HORSEBACK by PHILIP AYRES THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS by JOEL BARLOW ECLOGUE: FATHER COME HWOME by WILLIAM BARNES THE TWO ARCHERS by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |