Poems (Emerson, 1847)/Compensation

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

For other versions of this work, see Compensation (Emerson, "Why should I keep holiday").

COMPENSATION.

 

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Why should I keep holiday
When other men have none?
Why but because, when these are gay,
I sit and mourn alone?

And why, when mirth unseals all tongues,
Should mine alone be dumb?
Ah! late I spoke to silent throngs,
And now their hour is come.