Classic Poem

Why is sorrow, better than laughter?
By God's measure, how does it matter?

Is laughter so low, scarcely refined?
Lower than sorrow, with nothing divine?

Yet laughter in children tickles the skies,
While sorrow, the 'morrow, blackens the eyes.

Sorrow, says God, makes the heart better.
But is laughter's crying-edge, whetter?

Sharpened and trued, tempered with blue,
Laughter by sorrow is colored, too.

Yet softening the countenance,
Exalting by a humble glance.

Laughter's higher than I guessed!
But Oh!, my soul, my sorrowing breast.

Ecclesiastes 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter:
for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.