Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ELEGY by ANDRE MARIE CHENIER

First Line: EVERY MAN HAS HIS SORROWS; YET EACH STILL
Last Line: THEY HAVE BUT CHANGED ONE FOR ANOTHER WOE.
Subject(s): HEARTS; LOVE;

EVERY man has his sorrows; yet each still
Hides under a calm forehead his own will.
Each pities but himself. Each in his grief
Envies his neighbor; he too seeks relief;
For one man's pain is of no other known:
They hide their sorrows as he hides his own;
And each, with tears and aching heart, can sigh:
All other men are happy, but not I.
They are unhappy all. They, desolate,
Cry against heaven and bid heaven change their fate.
Their fate is changed; they soon, with fresh tears, know
They have but changed one for another woe.



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