Category Archives: Poetry

“Solitude” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1883)

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Well . . . it turns out that “Solitude” is a little more negative than I had remembered.  Still wise.  Here’s the version I had memorized:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth has need of your mirth;
It has troubles enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, and it’s lost on the air;
For they’ll take full measure of all your pleasure
But nobody wants your care.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and they’ll pass you by.
Succeed and give, and they’ll let you live,
But fail — and they’ll let you die.

Which is nice, if blunt, and is what I intended to refer to in Growth through Governance.  And it turns out the full poem is as it appears here.  Perhaps Wilcox had two versions, because the longer version seems a lot more negativistic than the version I had heard.  Any English buffs among the readers here?

To a Louse, on Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church (Robert Burns, 1786)

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Join me in being a poetry fan.  Click here to read Burns’s full poem in its original Scots glory.

Burns, in his poem, wrote of social class and putting on airs, with the church providing center stage for pretentiousness.  To what extent does social class prevent your organization from seeing yourselves as others see you?  Do you face different obstacles to self-awareness as an organization — and if so, what are they?

I’m willing to bet our organizations face all sorts of different obstacles to self-awareness, and yet, I’m also willing to bet we have an awful lot in common with Scotland in 1786.  What do you think?  Does Burns’s poem speak to you?