Poems (Emerson, Household Edition, 1904)/Compensation
For other versions of this work, see Compensation (Emerson, "Why should I keep holiday").
COMPENSATION
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.