He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.Eternity mourns that. ’Tis an ill cureFor life’s worst ills, to have no time to feel them.Where sorrow ’s held intrusive and turned out,There wisdom will not enter, nor true power,Nor aught that dignifies humanity. Henry Taylor Philip van Artevelde (1834)
Weep not for the dead with a fruitless recalling,Their soul on the wings of the morning hath fled;Mourn rather for those whom yet life is enthralling,Ah! weep for the living—weep not for the dead. Letitia Elizabeth Landon The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
I am not mad; I would to heaven I were!For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:O, if I could, what grief should I forget! William Shakespeare King John (1598)
But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside,And let the fountain of your tears be dry'd,In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain,Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain,Your pains they witness, but they can no more,While Death reigns tyrant o'er this mortal shore. Phillis Wheatley
Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer notMore grief than ye can weep for. That is well—That is light grieving! Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The mossy marbles restOn the lips that he has pressedIn their bloom;And the names he loved to hearHave been carved for many a yearOn the tomb. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Nor doth the general careTake hold on me, for my particular griefIs of so flood-gate and o'erbearing natureThat it engluts and swallows other sorrowsAnd it is still itself. William Shakespeare Othello (1603)
There is an indolence in griefWhich will not even seek relief.What is the toil, or care, or pain,The human heart cannot sustain?Enough if struggling can createA change or colour in our fate;But where's the spirit that can copeWith listless suffering, when hope,The last of misery's allies,Sickens of its sweet self, and dies. Letitia Elizabeth Landon The Troubadour (1825)
O, grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last,And careful hours with time's deform'd handHave written strange defeatures in my face. William Shakespeare
MenCan counsel and speak comfort to that griefWhich they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,Their counsel turns to passion, which beforeWould give preceptial medicine to rage,Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,Charm ache, with air and agony with words. William Shakespeare
O, brothers! let us leave the shame and sinOf taking vainly in a plaintive mood,The holy name of Grief—holy herein,That, by the grief of One, came all our good. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A genuine faith lifts us above the bitterness of grief; a sense of Christ's living presence takes away all unbearable loneliness even when we are most alone. In our darkest hours, to know that our lost friend is still living, still loving us, still ours, in the highest and best sense, must be unspeakably consoling. Arthur Kenney Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
Let us weep in our darkness—but weep not for him!Not for him—who, departing, leaves millions in tears!Not for him—who has died full of honor and years!Not for him—who ascended Fame’s ladder so highFrom the round at the top he has stepp'd to the sky. Nathaniel Parker Willis
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,Remembers me of all his gracious parts,Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;Then, have I reason to be fond of grief? William Shakespeare King John (1598)
O! sing unto my roundelay,O! drop thy briny tear with me.Dance no more at holiday,Like a running river be;My love is dead,Gone to his death bedAll under the willow tree. Thomas Chatterton
Yes, we all live to God!Father, Thy chastening rod,So help us, Thine afflicted ones, to bear,That in the spirit land,Meeting at Thy right hand,'Twill be our heaven to find that He is there! John Pierpont