Read "The Common Link" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When on the crowded thoroughfare, / Amidst the motley throng I stray, / In all the stranger faces there, / I meet and pass from day to day, / Whether the face be young, or old, / Or wreathed in smiles, or calm, or cold, / On every brow I trace some line / That links the strangers' heart to mine.
Though a proud beauty rustles by, / With haughty mien, I smile and say, / "You have a heart-ache -- so have I: / We both are hiding it to-day. / Though you are rich, I am poor, / We both have entered sorrow's door; / Grief comes alike to you and me, / So we are of one family."