Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SYMPATHY by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

First Line: FRIEND, NEIGHBOR, STRANGER, AS THE CASE MAY BE
Last Line: SCORCHED FIERCEST, IF IT MIGHT NOT BE THE SAME.
Subject(s): SOUL; SYMPATHY; EMPATHY;
Friend, neighbor, stranger, as the case may be,
You who are sitting in the stall next to me,
And listening also to this pitiless play
That says for me all that I would not say,
And follows me, however I wind about,
And seems to turn my whole life inside out:
I wonder, should I speak and be the first
To own just where in my soul in hurt worst,
And you revealed in yours the spot it flame
Scorched fiercest, if it might not be the same.



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