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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WEAK, by JAMES OPPENHEIM Poet's Biography
First Line: Ever the same - this love of the weak
Last Line: Who cannot say this, loving the weak?
Subject(s): Kindness; Pity
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?
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
IN PITY AS WE KISS AND LIE by JOHN CIARDI
PITY THIS POOR ANIMAL by LUCILLE CLIFTON
PITY ASCENDING WITH THE FOG by JAMES TATE
EPISTLE IN FORM OF A BALLAD TO HIS FRIENDS by FRANCOIS VILLON
IN AN ACT OF PITY by ROBERT CREELEY
AN EXPOSTULATION by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE
THE COMPASSIONATE FOOL by NORMAN CAMERON