Solitude

Elle Wheeler Wilcox

(1850 - 1919)

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;

Sigh, it is lost in the air.

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

Be sad, and you lose them all.

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Here is a fine reading of the poem.

The first two lines of the poem are very familiar -

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone."

I cannot say that I knew they were from a poem. They hung in my memory as a common proverb. The poem repeats the central theme throughout and on that count it does not develop the message so much as it reasserts it. Nevertheless, the consequences of a life lived alone are inescapable in this poem. Happily, I am surrounded by loving family and friends. But, as a psychologist I know it is not like that for everyone.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection Poems of Passion and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone." Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death.