I Measure Every Grief I Meet (Emily Dickinson)

Poetry Challenge.

Persona/Voice: Aurora Starborn

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A poem by Emily Dickinson

Adapted lyrics slightly within last stanza

Adapted for chorus sections

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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I measure every Grief I meet

With narrow probing eyes,

I wonder if It weighs like Mine..

Or has an Easier size..

I wonder if They bore it long..

Or did it just begin....

I could not tell the Date of Mine,

It feels so old a pain,

I wonder if it hurts to Live..!

And if They have to Try..!

And whether, could They choose between

It would not be... to die

I note that Some, gone patient long

At length, renew their smile

An imitation of a Light,

That has so little Oil

I wonder if when Years have piled

Some Thousands, on the Harm

That hurt them early, such a lapse

Could give them any Balm...

Or would they go on aching still,

Through Centuries of Nerve....

Enlightened to a larger Pain,

In Contrast with the Love...

I wonder if it Hurts to Live..!

And if They have to Try...

And whether, could They choose between

It would not be...to die

The Grieved, are many, I am told..

There is the various Cause,

Death, is but one, and comes but once

And only nails the eyes.

There's Grief of Want, and grief of Cold

A sort they call "Despair"

There's Banishment from native Eyes,

In sight of Native Air....

And though I may not guess the kind,

Correctly... yet to me

A piercing Comfort it affords,

In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the Cross,

And how they're mostly worn,

Still fascinated to presume,

That Some are like my own...

I wonder if it hurts to Live..

And if They have to Try...

And whether, could They choose between?

I wonder if it Hurts to Give..

So much, and nothing in return,

And whether, could They choose between

A choice for you... and I..

"I Measure Every Grief I Meet" Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)