University of Virginia Library



SYMPATHY

Friend, neighbor, stranger, as the case may be,
You who are sitting in the stall next 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 it hurt worst,
And you revealed in yours the spot its flame
Scorched fiercest, if it might not be the same.