Compensation - R.W. Emerson

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.

Compensation is a very short poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The poem seems a death poem.

Poet says that why should he keep holiday when other men are working. He says that when other are happy, he is sitting alone and mourning. Other people are talking joyfully but poet is dumb. In the end poet wants to talk with silent crowd to say that now their hour is come.

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Ajit Kaliya

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