Compensation in  General   

Why should I keep holiday,
When other men have none?
Why but because when these are gay,
I sit and mourn alone.

And why when mirth unseals all tongues
Should mine alone be dumb?
Ah! late I spoke to silent throngs,
And now their hour is come.

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Other poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

• Account Of A Visit From St. Nicholas
• Alphonso Of Castile
• Astræ
• Bacchus
• Berrying
• Blight
• Brahma
• Celestial Love
• Compensation
• Concord Hymn
• Dæmonic Love
• Days
• Dirge
• Each And All
• Eros
• Etienne de la Boéce
• Fable
• Fate
• Forbearance
• Give All To Love
• Good-by
• Initial Love
• Loss And Gain
• Merlin
• Merlin I
• Merlin II
• Merops
• Mithridates
• Monadnoc
• Musketaquid
• Ode To Beauty
• Ode To William H. Channing
• Painting And Sculpture
• Saadi
• Sursum Corda
• Suum Cuique
• Tact
• The Amulet
• The Apology
• The Barberry Bush
• The Bell
• The Forerunners
• The Park
• The Problem
• The Rhodora
• The Snow-Storm
• The Sphinx
• The Sphynx
• Threnody
• To Ellen, At The South
• To Eva
• To J.W.
• Two Rivers
• Uriel