Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE WEAK by JAMES OPPENHEIM

First Line: EVER THE SAME - THIS LOVE OF THE WEAK
Last Line: WHO CANNOT SAY THIS, LOVING THE WEAK?
Subject(s): KINDNESS; PITY;

EVER the same -- this love of the weak.

The wind was so bitter that the Italian mother and child were blown back at the corner...
The little boy cried, whimpering against the world ...
Quickly the mother took her shabby furs from her neck
And wrapped them about her son ...
Then they went on, both of them content.

We pity ourselves when we pity the frailties of others,
We see ourselves in the beggar or the murderer sentenced to be killed;
And when we soothe and heal another we are merely laying gentle hands upon our own dark trouble...

That which ye do for the least of these,
Ye do for me...
Who cannot say this, loving the weak?



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