One Worse Thing

Margaret Widdemer 1884 (Doylestown) – 1978



LAST Spring I walked these ways, and a sharp grief walked with me,
For you had broken my heart with a light kiss, carelessly,
And I was young and was new to grief, and could think of no worse thing
Than to walk abroad with a hurting heart and be hopeless in the Spring.

But I am older now, and have lived with grief awhile,
And there's one worse thing than a hurting heart that you have to hide and smile,
For I who know what a hurt heart is, and the thing that grief can be,
I– I have broken a heart with a light kiss, carelessly!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
53

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB CCAA
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 535
Words 110
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4

Margaret Widdemer

Margaret Widdemer was a U.S. poet and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for her collection The Old Road to Paradise, shared with Carl Sandburg for Cornhuskers. more…

All Margaret Widdemer poems | Margaret Widdemer Books

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