I Never Lost as Much but Twice

I Never Lost as Much but Twice - meaning Summary

Loss and Unexpected Restoration

This short lyric records two episodes of radical loss and two acts of unexpected restoration. The speaker says she has been deprived “twice,” describing the depths of poverty and helplessness and then a sudden reversal when “Angels twice descending” return what was lost. The tone mixes intimacy, irony and reverence, addressing God with contradictory names—both thief and benefactor—suggesting faith that can both take and give. Overall the poem registers how extreme vulnerability invites reliance on a transcendent source that alternately deprives and replenishes the self.