"Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Solitude

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 on 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 large and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

 

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Poem video👇

https://youtu.be/Gvp_AErAaHI

Who wrote the poem "Solitude?"

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919)

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet who wrote “Solitude,” which contains the famous lines “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” Popular among people rather than among literary critics, she often displayed in her poems cheerful and optimistic sentiments in plain and rhyming words. After she married Robert Wilcox in 1884, the couple became interested in spiritualism and promised each other that whoever died first would return and communicate with the other. After her husband died in 1916 after over 30 years of marriage, she was overwhelmed by grief and waited long to hear from her deceased husband in vain. She also believed in reincarnation. She died of cancer in 1919.

"Solitude" explanation

 

In the poem, the speaker describes the relationship between one’s attitude toward life and other people’s reaction to it. If you maintain a positive outlook on life, then others will be attracted to you and gather around you. In contrast, if you have a negative attitude toward life, then others will avoid you and you’ll have to face the pain alone. People in general already have enough sufferings of their own and don’t need unhappiness from others. They tend to flock around someone who is happy because it may make them happy too. The poem was inspired by Wilcox’s encounter with a sorrowful widow when she was travelling to Madison, Wisconsin, to attend the Governor’s inaugural ball. The young widow dressed in black was crying and Wilcox tried to comfort her throughout the journey, which made her so exhausted and unhappy that she could barely attend the event. When she looked at her own face in the mirror, she recalled the sorrowful widow and wrote the opening lines of “Solitude.”