Community Chat

[YorkieonmyPillow]

....cry, and you cry alone.

True or false?

[alicedee]

It depends on if you mean "cry" literally.  Most times if you cry...there will be someone, probably many...who will sympathize with your sorrow.  But literally crying along with you....only occasionally, I would guess.

[Scooby Doo]

It means that people prefer the company of cheerful people.  People who are grumpy will not have many friends and will be left alone.

This expression was coined by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) in her poem "Solitude" (1883):

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

[maestra]

true during a terrible time in my life. Took a long time to recover.

[Cats3000]

.......cry and you end up on "Strike It Rich".

[Noel7]

I think most people cry alone.  It can be good to open up, healing.  There will be people who genuinely care about you.  

[stevieb]

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@Scooby Doo wrote:

It means that people prefer the company of cheerful people.  People who are grumpy will not have many friends and will be left alone.

This expression was coined by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) in her poem "Solitude" (1883):

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

---

Thanks for posting the poem... I enjoyed reading it. It seems in its original context this might have been as much a mild censure of the fickleness of human nature as a suggestion to always be 'up'...

Also well stated in the song "Everybody Loves a Winner but When You Lose, You Lose Alone"...

[MacDUFF]

@Scooby Doo

Thank you for posting that poem...enjoyed it very much!

@YorkieonmyPillow

I tend to think that, generally speaking, the statement is true.

[blackhole99]

When my niece was a toddler she would just cry at the drop of a hat. It was such a pitiful spectacle she would have us all crying with her.

[Quse]

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@YorkieonmyPillow wrote:

....cry, and you cry alone.

True or false?

---

Mainly true, although, I'd add, people tend to judge why you are crying as to whether or not you're worthy of their consolation. Tell your sad story well enough, an actor might get an Oscar portraying you, but take too long in your depression, your friends find cheerier company.

The hardest periods of my life were forged by fire, without friends or family, but I found out what I'm made of. 

Favourite poem: Bereft by Robert Frost

Now my motto is: always alone, never lonely. I have one other, but this is a G rated place 😜