Where I Have Lost, I Softer Tread
poem 104
Where I Have Lost, I Softer Tread - meaning Summary
Private Signs of Public Grief
The poem sketches how loss reshapes everyday conduct and speech. The speaker moves gently, tends flowers over graves, and protects the dead from harshness even when memorials are only stone. Grief appears in small outward signs—a black bonnet, a hushed voice—and is also a communal knowledge, as the departed are remembered by those who once dressed in white and have gone to their "Next Bliss."
Read Complete AnalysesWhere I have lost, I softer tread I sow sweet flower from garden bed I pause above that vanished head And mourn. Whom I have lost, I pious guard From accent harsh, or ruthless word Feeling as if their pillow heard, Though stone! When I have lost, you’ll know by this A Bonnet black A dusk surplice A little tremor in my voice Like this! Why, I have lost, the people know Who dressed in flocks of purest snow Went home a century ago Next Bliss!
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