It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than these beset the way.

To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad staring of Life’s Tragedy.

To have come near to the perfect love,
Not the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.

This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem Life’s Tragedy

2 Comments

  1. chelsie says:

    this poem is very touching and its very true

  2. C. LeBLanc says:

    I’ve loved this poem since I was young. Having just lost my mother, I re-read it again for the first time in many years and it still means so much to me. Appreciate everything, especially love. In the end, nothing you have matters except what you have in your heart.

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