Solitude (Wilcox)

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2><SPAN name="SOLITUDE" id="SOLITUDE"></SPAN>SOLITUDE.</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Laugh, and the world laughs with you;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Weep, and you weep alone;<br/></span> <span class="i0">For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,<br/></span> <span class="i2">But has trouble enough of its own.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Sing, and the hills will answer;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Sigh, it is lost on the air;<br/></span> <span class="i0">The echoes bound to a joyful sound,<br/></span> <span class="i2">But shrink from voicing care.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Rejoice, and men will seek you;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Grieve, and they turn and go;<br/></span> <span class="i0">They want full measure of all your pleasure,<br/></span> <span class="i2">But they do not need your woe.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Be glad, and your friends are many;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Be sad, and you lose them all;<br/></span> <span class="i0">There are none to decline your nectar'd wine,<br/></span> <span class="i2">But alone you must drink life's gall.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Feast, and your halls are crowded;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Fast, and the world goes by.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Succeed and give, and it helps you live,<br/></span> <span class="i2">But no man can help you die.<br/></span> <span class="i0">There is room in the halls of pleasure<br/></span> <span class="i2">For a large and lordly train,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But one by one we must all file on<br/></span> <span class="i2">Through the narrow aisles of pain.<br/></span></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />