Explore "Mockery" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Why do we grudge our sweets so to the living / Who, God knows, find at best too much of gall, / And then with generous, open hands kneel, giving / Unto the dead our all?
Why do we pierce the warm hearts, sin or sorrow, / With idle jests, or scorn, or cruel sneers, / And when it cannot know, on some to-morrow, / Speak of its woe through tears?
What do the dead care, for the tender token -- / The love, the praise, the floral offerings? / But palpitating, living hearts are broken / For want of just these things.