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)