We are so careful of our speech When strangers listen, lest we say Some word unkind. Our lips we teach To guard themselves by night and day, For fear some careless, thoughtless word May by the passing throng be heard. But with our own! -- wife, brother, friend, Or husband, sister, mother, sire -- Words that old friendship may offend, That burn the heart of love like fire, We sow like thistles ev'rywhere, And kill life's roses with the tare. Yet how important words of ours To those who love us! -- ev'ry phrase Makes life's hard highway bloom with flow'rs Or drifts the snow across their ways; We make their Summer, make their Spring, Their Winter, Autumn -- ev'rything. The passing stranger may not hear, Or stranger hearing may not heed, But when your word cuts someone near For endless days a heart may bleed -- How many know the torture of The knife that stabs, in hands they love. Love gives no license, friendship right, To hurt because they love us so, But greater duty, more delight, To guard from wounds the ones we know -- Kind not to travelers alone, But in our house, and to our own. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CARGO MOVING TO GAZA (1988) by MARVIN BELL TO KNOW IN REVERIE THE ONLY PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE ABSOLUTE by HAYDEN CARRUTH MATER AMABILIS by EMMA LAZARUS THE RING AND THE CASTLE by AMY LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IPPOLIT KONOVALOFF by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |