These lines begin “Solitude,” first published in the Feb. 25, 1883, issue of the New York Sun. The author was Ella Wheeler, and the inspiration for the poem came to Miss Wheeler on a day in early February, when she was to attend the governor’s inaugural ball in Madison, Wis. She was on a train, en-route to the celebration, when she noticed a young woman dressed in black sitting across the aisle from her. Since the woman was crying, Miss Wheeler sat next to her and sought to comfort her for the rest of the journey. When they arrived, the poet was so depressed that she wondered how she could possibly attend the scheduled festivities. Later on, with the incident behind her, Miss Wheeler prepared for the inaugural ball. As she looked at her own radiant face in the mirror, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful widow. It was at that moment that she wrote the opening lines of “Solitude”:
“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone.”(Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1883)
* 부정적 감정의 전염성을 의도적으로 곡해한, 위 경구는 실제와 부합하지 않는다.
